|
|
John McCormack
|
     | |||
| 'With that voice', said Oscar Hammerstein I of John McCormack, 'and his Irish name, what a career he would have in concerts'.
At that time (1909) McCormack was embarking on his American operatic career at the impressario's Manhattan Opera House, but Hammerstein had rightly judged where the tenor's real future lay.
For all the heady achievements in opera it was on the concert platform that McCormack became the huge success that he remained for thirty years.
His recordings boosted that success and have remained to this day as an enduring monument.
John McCormack was born in Athlone, Ireland, on June 14, 1884. His career spanned opera, oratorio, lieder and ballads, and he is as well remembered today for his 'I Hear You Calling Me' as he is for his tremendous 'Il Mio Tesoro' (Don Giovanni). After early study with Dr. Vincent O'Brien in Dublin he won the prestigious tenor award at the Dublin Feis Ceoil in 1903, singing 'Tell Fair Irene' (Atalanta) and 'The Snowy Breasted Pearl'. After further study with Vincenzo Sabatini in Italy he made his operatic debut as Savona in L'Amico Fritz in 1906. On his return to London in 1907 he made his first impression there at the Boosey Ballad Concerts at the Queen's Hall. In the 'Musical Opinion and Musical Review' a writer only identified as 'WB' wrote; 'No doubt the voice was excellent, yet the actual effect of his singing seemed in excess of the voice. A more perfect and more beautiful display of vocal art I would not wish to hear'. High praise for a young man not yet 23! Later that year he made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana. For the 1908 Boosey Ballad Concerts, Arthur Boosey invited the singer to select a new ballad and introduce it himself. One day while working with Charles Marshall, a pupil of Sir Arthur Sullivan and accompanist at the Concerts, Marshall played one of his own compositions, commenting that no publisher would touch it! John sang it through and immediately saw its possibilities as a vehicle for his voice. He recommended it to Boosey and first sang it at a Concert in March 1908; over his career he recorded eight different versions. The song was 'I Hear You Calling Me'. McCormack opened the Autumn Season of 1909 at the Manhattan Opera House in In 1912 the concert manager Charles Wagner offered McCormack a three year contract with a minimum of fifty concerts per year, commencing at $750 per concert. The first concert took place at San Francisco on February 27, 1912 and was an outstanding success. Later that year there were twelve concerts in New York with audiences totalling 58,000. Effectively this year was the commencement of his concert career and was also the occasion on which Edwin (Teddy) Schneider joined the singer as accompanist, a role he maintained to March 1937, with one exception when the tenor took his old singing teacher, Dr. Vincent O'Brien, as accompanist on a tour of Australia and New Zealand. After Schneider's retirement Gerald Moore was the accompanist of the later years. McCormack spent most of the years of World War I in the United States where he made valiant efforts in promoting the sales of Liberty Bonds. At concerts every purchaser of a $100 bond was entitled to an autographed copy of a McCormack record; for a $5,000 bond McCormack would sing any song of the purchaser's choice. On one occasion a lady stopped him in the foyer of a hotel in Buffalo, where he was attending a luncheon party, and told him of a blind and invalided resident of the hotel who had never heard McCormack sing. She said 'he is willing to buy $100,000 worth of bonds if you will sing just one song for him'. McCormack said 'it is contrary to my custom ever to sing before going on the platform on the day of a concert but as this is so marked an exception I will do so this once'. A piano was wheeled into the luncheon room and there McCormack sang his most expensive rendition! At the Fourth of July Celebrations of 1918 at Washington's grave at Mount Vernon the tenor stood beside President Wilson as the representatives of thirty-three nations laid wreaths at the graveside. He sang 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic' and 'The Star Spangled Banner'. His old mentor Oscar Hammerstein I died in 1919. Due to the war and its aftermath very few of the impressario's operatic protégés were in the United States and at his funeral service McCormack, representing the singers of the old Manhattan Opera, sang 'The Lost Chord'. By 1923 he had finally deserted the operatic stage and concentrated on the concert platform and recording. The world tours continued throughout his career, his audiences never tiring of his recitals. Speaking of his recitals he said:- 'I build my programme in a set way and never vary from it. First, I give my audience the songs I love. Second, I give them songs they ought to like, and will like when they hear them often enough. Third, I give them the folksongs of my native land. Fourth, I give my audience songs they want to hear, for such songs they have every right to expect. After all, the first duty of any artist to his public is to consider its tastes and I have always done so'. Writing in 'High Fidelity' magazine the American critic Max de Shauensee painted a perfect picture of the artist at work: 'when I think of the word 'singer' stripped of any extraneous dramatic connotations and in its purest sense, I see John McCormack standing on the concert platform - his head thrown back, his eyes closed, in his hands the little black book he always carried, open, but never glanced at, as he wove a spell over his completely hushed listeners. John McCormack was truly a singer for the people; he was also a singer's singer'. The advent of talking pictures brought McCormack to the silver screen; he was paid $500,000 to star in 'Song O' My Heart' in 1929. 'The Times' critic commented: 'the general impression of 'Song O' My Heart' is that it is worth suffering the mawkishness of the story to hear McCormack in his many enchanting moods'. The film is of interest today as it shows an unbroken concert sequence, unique in film making, which gives a glorious example of McCormack's concert technique. There is also an audience of 800 extras; surely the only time an audience was paid to listen to McCormack! On March 16, 1937, McCormack gave his last concert in the United States. The following year he undertook a farewell tour of Great Britain and Ireland, culminating with the final concert at the Albert Hall on November 27, 1938, where police tried to control those who could not gain admittance and an amazing 11,000 people crowded the auditorium. It was a very moving occasion for both singer and audience, but it was not, in fact, his farewell. During World War II he sang on tour in Britain on behalf of the Red Cross and on BBC broadcasts of 'Irish Half-Hour'. But time had taken its toll and the singer died at his home at Booterstown, Co. Dublin on September 16, 1945, aged 61. Through the aegis of recordings McCormack's name and reputation live on; it was no accident that Jean de Reszke called him 'the true redeemer of Bel Canto'. |
|
| All rights of the producer and of the owner of the recorded work reserved. Unauthorised copying, public performance and broadcasting of this recording prohibited. |