110330 bk McCormack3 2/9/06 10:19 AM Page 8 TOSTI: DANKS: ADD ¡ My Dreams 3:21 ∞ Silver Threads Among the Gold 3:22 THE McCORMACK EDITION • 3 11th December 1912; B 12758-1 (Victor 64310) 3rd January 1913; B 11834-3 (Victor 64260) 8.110330 TUCKER: Track 14: Studio orchestra conducted by Percy Pitts ™ Sweet Genevieve 3:31 2nd January 1913; B 12759-2 (Victor 64309) All other tracks with the Victor Orchestra, conductor(s) unknown John CLAY: £ I’ll Sing Thee Songs of Araby 2:51 Tracks 1-13, 15, 19-25 sung in English 2nd January 1913; B 12760-1 (Victor 64375) Tracks 14, 16-18 sung in Italian McCORMACK RUSSELL: ¢ Where the River Shannon Flows 3:13 2nd January 1913; B 12761-2 (Victor 64311) 1912-13 Acoustic Recordings BIZET BOITO HERBERT TOSTI The Naxos historical label aims to make available the greatest recordings in the history of recorded music, in the best IRISH SONGS and truest sound that contemporary technology can provide. To achieve this aim, Naxos has engaged a number of respected restorers who have the dedication, skill and experience to produce restorations that have set new standards in the field of historical recordings. New restorations by Ward Marston 8.110330 8 110330 bk McCormack3 2/9/06 10:19 AM Page 2 John McCormack (1884-1945) AITKEN: NEVIN: The McCormack Edition Vol. 3 1 Maire, My Girl 3:28 ! The Rosary 2:13 2nd April 1912; C 11813-1 (Victor 74298) 5th April 1912; B 11825-2 (Victor 64257) “I have always thought”, Max de Schauensee wrote, “that friends in high places had counted more than sheer what Caruso was to grand opera, McCormack was to the musical merit. McCormack himself was under no SQUIRE: OLD IRISH AIR ‘Gramachree’: concert platform”. It is an accurate judgment. Caruso and illusions about his need for further study; his unceasing 2 Like Stars Above 3:29 @ The Harp that Once through Tara’s Halls 2:27 McCormack were the tenors who dominated the opera hard work over the next two years, along with his shrewd 2nd April 1912; C 11814-1 (Victor 74269) 5th April 1912; B 11833-1 (Victor 64259) house and the recital hall respectively in the opening observations of other singers at Covent Garden, resulted decades of the last century. Although John McCormack in an artistic leap which has no parallel in the history of STERNDALE BENNETT: DANKS: established an opera career for which he was originally recording. In less than three years, the McCormack 3 Take, O Take Those Lips Away 2:57 # Silver Threads Among the Gold 3:19 trained, he soon began to enjoy his greatest recognition on instrument was fully mature; his first Victor records, 2nd April 1912; B 11815-1 (Victor 64252) 5th April 1912; B 11834-1 (Victor 64260) the concert platform. The years just before World War I made just after his 1909 New York début in La traviata, saw him firmly established in England; those same years show a completely finished artist. (Naxos 8.110329 fully MARSHALL: A Masque WOLF-FERRARI: I gioielli della Madonna also witnessed his first seasons in the United States. As documents the first years of the tenor’s American career.) 4 A Child’s Song 2:45 $ T’eri un giorno ammalato 4:25 his appearances in opera diminished, his work as a In addition to his beautifully produced voice and his 2nd April, 1912; B 118 16-1 (Victor 64253) with Louise Kirkby Lunn, contralto recitalist increased to the point where his reputation (and superb technique, McCormack had an important 15th July 1912; Ho201af (HMV 2-054040) fortune) made him the most popular singer ever heard in advantage over most other European singers who came to TROTÈRE: recital. He is, in musical history, a phenomenon without the United States. This was the enormous population of 5 Asthore 4:24 CADMAN: precedent. Irish immigrants who were only too ready and willing to 2nd April 1912; C 11817-1 (Victor 74299) % At Dawning, Op. 29 No. 1 2:20 John McCormack was born in the small Irish town of welcome this ambassador of song from their native 11th December 1912; B 12704-1 (Victor 64302) Athlone on 14th June 1884. By 1903 he was in Dublin, culture. Their deep emotional ties to their Ireland of LIDDLE: studying half-heartedly for a post in the civil service, but memories and dreams were the chords this minstrel 6 A Farewell 2:21 BOITO: Mefistofele: when he won first prize in an important music festival that would play upon, as no other artist ever could. 2nd April 1912; B 11819-1 (Victor 64254) ^ Dai campi, dai prati 2:15 same year, he found himself on the road to a singing Welcomed in the concert hall by adoring audiences 11th December 1912; B 12705-1 (Victor 64303) career. Generous local support enabled him to travel to who clamoured for (and got) double the number of HERBERT: Natoma Milan in 1905 where he studied with Vincenzo Sabatini selections announced on the singer’s programmes, and 7 My Commander as Envoy Bids Me Come 3:28 BOITO: Mefistofele: (whose son wrote Scaramouche and other romance faced in the opera house with direct competition from 3rd April 1912; C 11822-1 (Victor 74295) & Giunto sul passo 2:56 novels). The maestro’s work soon made the fledgling tenors of the Caruso variety, McCormack soon realised 11th December 1912; B 12706-1 (Victor 64304) tenor ready for his operatic début, which took place at the direction his career must take. The wisdom of that CLUTSAM: Savona’s Teatro Chiabrera on 13th January 1906. When, decision is confirmed by statistics that continue to 8 I Know of Two Bright Eyes 2:36 BIZET: Les pêcheurs de perles: as the hero of Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz, the young impress. For example, what singer of the present day 3rd April 1912; B 11823-1 (Victor 64255) * Mi par d’udir ancora 3:10 Irishman had to look twice his age, it was perhaps an could fill New York’s Carnegie Hall five times in a single 11th December 1912; B 12707-1 (Victor 64305) omen of the discomfort McCormack would always feel season? By 1918 a national music magazine could OLD IRISH AIR, arr. MacMurrough: on the operatic stage. pronounce McCormack “the most popular singer in the 9 Eileen Aroon 3:14 ADAMS: After this quiet Italian début and some unsuccessful world”, and in one year of that same decade the Irish tenor 3rd April 1912; B 11824-2 (Victor 64256) ( Nirvana 3:54 auditions at La Scala, the young singer set his sights on even surpassed Caruso’s legendary annual record sales. 11th December 1912; C 12708-1 (Victor 74329) London. Thanks to the influential Sir John Murray Scott, “Please, Giovanni”, the great Neapolitan warned with a OLD IRISH AIR, arr. James: McCormack made his Covent Garden début, in twinkle in his eye, the next time they met, “not to let it 0 The Wearing of the Green 2:46 WALLACE: Maritana: Cavalleria Rusticana on 15th October 1907; at 23, he was happen again”. It did not, but the Irish tenor had reached a 3rd April 1912; B 11826-1 (Victor 64258) ) There is a Flower that Bloometh 3:06 the youngest principal tenor ever engaged by that opera high-water mark in his success. 11th December 1912; B 12710-1 (Victor 64307) house, but recordings made at the time clearly show that McCormack spent the war years in the United States, 8.110330 27 8.110330 110330 bk McCormack3 2/9/06 10:19 AM Page 6 Southern Yemen, on the coast of the Arabian Peninsula, of Araby, held in Dublin in 1894. One of the young and as that conflict was coming to an end the singer and observed, Natoma “set back the cause of opera in English an area known at the time as Aden. The mention of the Dubliners who attended the fair was the twelve-year-old his wife decided to make official what had by then almost beyond reparation”. He also notes how ironic it “Siha’s fragrant thorn” eludes positive identification, but James Joyce who used his memories of that visit when he become a reality: they became American citizens. It was a was that McCormack’s English, “so flawless and so we may assume it is a botanical specimen from the same came to write one of his short stories, entitled “Araby”. move that caused the singer a great deal of difficulty. beautiful, should have been put to such misuse”. As area. In any event, the poem’s exotic references make it McCormack and Joyce knew each other, and even sang People in the British Isles, and throughout the Empire, unfortunate as the opera was, with its mediocre music and reminiscent of Moore’s long poetic romance, Lallah together at a Dublin concert in 1904, when Joyce was saw him as a traitor; he was so unpopular in England that ludicrous text, we are grateful to have McCormack’s Rookh, a best-seller of the day, and one that catered to the seriously considering a singing career for himself. Joyce it was not until 1924 that he dared give a concert in clarion interpretation of Paul’s aria, conducted here by widespread interest in Eastern settings and themes. chose the life of a writer, and McCormack began his long London. The post-war years included memorable recitals Herbert himself, and recorded little more than a year after One final selection deals with the work of another journey through the world of music, but when we listen to in Paris, Berlin, and Prague, and in the early 1920s the that forgettable production.