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110329 bk McCormack 12/01/2005 02:20pm Page 5 The discographic data for the original Romophone CD issue is taken from John McCormack - A Comprehensive 1 CHERRY: Dear Little Shamrock 4:05 $ BLUMENTHAL: An Evening Song 4:30 8 iv 1910; B 8819-1 (Victor 64153) 30 iii 1911; C 10135-1 (Victor 74243) ADD Discography by Worth, Paul W. and Cartwright, Jim. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1986). THE McCORMACK EDITION • 2 2 VERDI: Bella figlia dell’amore % She is Far from the Land (Old Irish Air) 4:23 8.110329 (from Rigoletto) 3:50 31 iii 1911; C 10138-1 (Victor 74242) Producer’s Note with Nellie Melba, soprano, Edna Thornton, contralto, and Mario Sammarco, baritone ^ PARELLI: The Happy Morning Waits In assembling the first recordings made by John McCormack for the Victor Talking Machine and Gramophone 11 v 1910: 4189f (HMV 2-054025) (L’Alba Nascente) 2:50 31 iii 1911; B 10136-2 (Victor 64250) John (HMV) Companies, I have made every effort to secure the finest primary sources available, and have paid 3 GOUNOD: All’erta! All’erta (from Faust) 2:52 scrupulous attention to the correct pitching of each disc. All the records are presented in chronological order except with Nellie Melba, soprano, & BIZET: Del tempio al limitar where noted, and all alternative or unpublished takes which have been traced are included. Vocally and artistically, and Mario Sammarco, baritone (from Les Pêcheurs de Perles) 3:11 these 1910-11 acoustic recordings stand among McCormack’s finest. The sound quality of the records is 11 v 1910; 4188f (unpublished on HMV) with Mario Sammarco, baritone McCORMACK remarkably full; there is none of the piercing, constricted quality found in many of the tenor’s later acoustic Victor 31 iii 1911; C 8738-2 (HMV 2-054018; records. All the records play at the usual speeds, ranging from 76 to 77.5 rpm. 4 GOUNOD: All’erta! All’erta (from Faust) 2:51 unpublished on Victor) It is worth noting that four of McCormack’s rarest Victor records, I Hear You Calling Me and Molly Bawn, with Nellie Melba, soprano, and Mario Sammarco, baritone * BIZET: Del tempio al limitar 1910-11 both recorded in 1910, were replaced within a year by alternative versions. The 1911 recording of Molly Bawn, 11 v 1910; 4190f (IRCC 7B; unpublished on HMV) (from Les Pêcheurs de Perles) 3:04 incidentally, is sung in E, a semitone higher than the 1910 version in E flat. McCormack’s recording of The Happy with Mario Sammarco, baritone Morning Waits is another of his most elusive records, but the rarest item from this period is the twelve-inch disc of 5 BARKER: The Irish Emigrant 4:00 4 iv 1911; B 8738-2 (Victor 87082) Acoustic Recordings Bizet’s Pearl Fishers duet with Mario Sammarco. Although Victor never issued this recording, it appeared on the 16 iii 1911; C 10060-1 (Victor 74237) affiliate HMV label for a very brief period. The re-recording of this duet made four days later on a ten-inch disc is ( ROSSINI: Li Marinari the version most commonly found. 6 CROUCH: Kathleen Mavourneen 3:43 (No. 12 from Les Soirées Musicales) 3:20 16 iii 1911; C 10061 -1 (Victor 74236) with Mario Sammarco, baritone I am greatly indebted to John Bolig and Jim Cartwright for their discographic assistance, and especially to 4 iv 1911; B 10137-3 (Victor 87078) Lawrence Holdridge for providing me with pristine copies of much of the published material. 7 MARSHALL: I Hear You Calling Me 3:49 16 iii 1911; B 8695-2 (Victor 64120) ) ROSSINI: Mira la bianca luna VERDI Ward Marston (No. 11 from Les Soirées Musicales) 3:28 8 Believe Me If All Those Endearing with Emmy Destinn, soprano Young Charms (Old Irish Air) 3:20 18 vii 1911; 5203f (HMV 2-054019) 16 iii 1911; B 8537-3 (Victor 64180) GOUNOD ¡ ROSSINI:O il meglio mi scordavo ... 3:27 9 LEHMANN: Ah! Moon of My Delight Numero quindici (from Il Barbiere di Siviglia) (from In a Persian Garden) 4:22 with Mario Sammarco, baritone 16 iii 1911; C 10063-1 (Victor 74232) 18 vii 1911; 5205f (HMV 2-054021) BIZET 0 Molly Bawn (Old Irish Air; arr MacMurrough) 3:39 ™ PONCHIELLI: Badoer questa notte… 17 iii 1911; C 8752-2 (Victor 74175) O grido di quest’anima (from La Gioconda) 4:19 with Mario Sammarco, baritone ROSSINI ! OLCOTT and BALL: Mother Machree 3:19 18 vii 1911; 5206f (HMV 2-054022) 17 iii 1911; B 10069-1 (Victor 6418 1) Tracks 1 & 5-19 with the Victor Orchestra; The Naxos historical label aims to make available the greatest recordings in the history of recorded music, in the best @ HERBERT: I’m Falling in Love with Someone 3:14 tracks 2 - 4 with the New Symphony Orchestra and truest sound that contemporary technology can provide. To achieve this aim, Naxos has engaged a number of 17 iii 1911; B 10062-1 (Victor 6417 4) conducted by Sir Landon Ronald; tracks 20-22 respected restorers who have the dedication, skill and experience to produce restorations that have set new standards with symphony orchestra conducted by Percy Pitt in the field of historical recordings. # MacMURROUGH: Macushla 3:06 30 iii 1911; B 10134-1 (Victor 64205) Tracks 1, 5-16 sung in English Tracks 2-4, 17-22 sung in Italian New restorations by Ward Marston 8.110329 5 6 8.110329 McCormack and his wife were on their way to Austria (one year he even outsold Caruso). tenor we hear no nineteenth-century mannerisms, no trills A Note on the Song Texts when war was declared. The singer spent the war years in The present recording documents the second year of held too long for special effect, no vibrato in the place of the United States and decided to become an American McCormack’s great career in the United States. It also true emotion. Despite the timeless quality of his singing Throughout his career John McCormack’s managers were citizen. It was a decision that would cause him great reports on his twin careers in opera and concert, and McCormack did record more than one selection that falls repeatedly advised to save money by not printing the difficulty. The British viewed him as a traitor, and he indicates how early he began to favour the recital hall into the category known as ‘Victorian singing’. One of words to songs in the concert programmes; the singer’s became so unpopular in England that he was unable to over the opera house. The recorded output for 1910 is these is also one of the singer’s most famous records, the diction was so clear that his audiences did not need the give a London recital until 1924. equally divided between songs and arias, but in 1911 Ah! Moon of My Delight. The lush McCormack tone is texts. Every record McCormack made proves this point, Following the war McCormack gave concerts in songs outnumber arias threefold. As an opera singer heard here to its fullest advantage, with pianissimi that but words and phrases in some of his Irish songs are Paris, toured central Europe (giving a memorable recital McCormack soon realised that he would never be a flow evenly and effortlessly from the rest of the voice. We rather removed from modern English and require in Berlin) and made what would be his final opera Caruso. He did not have to emulate the great Italian, are also struck by the authority and the imagination of the explanation. A number of these words come directly from appearances in Monte Carlo. His 1923 creation of the rôle however, for the enormous enthusiasm of his concert singer’s phrasing. Listen, for example, to the melting Gaelic, while others are Anglicised spellings that retain of Gritzko in the newly edited La foire de Sorotchintzi by audiences, whose demand for encores often doubled the combination of tone and phrasing in the line ‘Turn down the sounds and meanings of the ancient language. For Mussorgsky was his farewell to the opera stage. Three length of his programmes, led him virtually to abandon an empty glass...’. Something of the same lushness is also McCormack’s Irish-American audiences and record years later he would make an extended tour of the Orient, opera in favour of concert tours. It was a wise and to be heard in another example of this now lost style of buyers, these echoes of an Ireland filled with lore and and in 1929 he answered the call of Hollywood, starring profitable decision. singing, his recording of Blumenthal’s An Evening Song. legend were precious reminders of the culture they had in Song O’ My Heart, the only film in which he had a As a recitalist, McCormack brought his audiences Ever mindful of his Irish-American record buyers, left behind; for his other listeners they were beautifully leading rôle. His co-star was the young Maureen into the heart of every song. Francis Robinson expressed McCormack was careful to include many Irish selections produced musical sounds, exotic hints of another world O’Sullivan, then at the beginning of her film career. After it best when he recalled McCormack’s total immersion in in the Victor Red Seal catalogue. Although some of these they would never experience directly. several more seasons of touring the United States and the music of each song: ‘He looked the mood of the were closer to Tin Pan Alley than to Dublin, all were Predictably most of these old Irish words are terms of England, McCormack bade farewell to his public at instrumental introductions’.