John McCormack & Fritz Kreisler
in Recital

Note by Theo Mortimer











John McCormack, whose record sales rivalled those of his friend Enrico Caruso, sang everything from opera and oratorio through lieder, art songs, folk songs, to the popular songs of the day. McCormack was born on June 14 1884 in Athlone, Ireland, and died on September 16, 1945 at Booterstown, near Dublin. He sang in opera in Ireland, Italy, Great Britain, the United States of America and Monaco, participating in two world premieres. His greatest successes were on the concert platform where he performed to audiences whose numbers equalled, if not surpassed, those of any of the 'pop' stars of his time. He was loved and honoured in many countries far from his native Ireland - Australia, Canada, China, Great Britain, Hawaii, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States of America, and throughout the continent of Europe. Most of the finest musicians of the day were personally known to him, but only a small number were members of his inner circle. Prominent amongst them were Fritz Kreisler, Edwin Schneider, Vincent O'Brien and Sergei Rakhmaninov. McCormack made records and appeared in concerts with the first three but, unfortunately, never with the fourth. He did, however, make several fine recordings of the composer's songs, where he was accompanied by Kreisler and Schneider.

Fritz Kreisler commenced his violin studies at the age of seven when he was admitted to the Vienna Conservatory, where one of his tutors was Anton Bruckner. Three years later he won the Conservatory's Gold Medal and moved to the Paris Conservatoire where Leo Delibes taught him musical composition. In 1887 he was awarded the Premier Grand Prix. Billed as 'Master Fritz Kreisler' he made his American debut in Boston on November 9, 1888. On his return to Austria he studied medicine for two years before being called for military service and then returned to his first love, the violin. By 1898 he was appearing as soloist with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, under Hans Richter, playing Bruch's 2nd Violin Concerto.

At that time many musicians and artists met at a Vienna coffee house, Cafe Grunsteidl. They included Johannes Brahms, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Eduard Hanslick, Hugo Wolf, Richard Heuberger and Fritz Kreisler. There was a great camaraderie amongst the coffee drinkers and when Heuberger told his friends he had a lyric for his operetta Der Opernball which the producer wanted composed in waltz time although the lyric was unsuited to that tempo, von Hofmannsthal rewrote the lyric while Kreisler dashed off a few bars of music on a slip of paper. Years later the composer returned the paper with his thanks. Kreisler modestly claimed he had only written a motif, but he often played the tune which he titled Midnight Bells and which as Komm Mit Mir im Chambre Séparée was the hit of the operetta.

His debut in Berlin was on December 1, 1899, playing Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto under Artur Nikisch. London soon followed and he began the tours of Europe and America which would continue for most of his life. At that time his fees averaged thirty to forty guineas per concert! While on shipboard on one of the tours he met Harriet Lies whom he was to marry three times (in New York in 1902, in the Austrian Embassy in London in 1903, and again in New York in 1947 when he and his wife returned to the Catholic Church).

While struggling on these low fees he met another artist who was finding it difficult to exist. His name was John McCormack. The two joined up to tour the English provinces on a percentage of profits basis. Their combined average profit was £10 to £12, the highest being £60. It was the foundation of a friendship which was to last until McCormack's death in 1945 and resulted in many important recordings together, many of them presented on this disc.

When World War I broke out Kreisler was recalled to the colours. He was wounded in an engagement with Russian Cossacks on September 6, 1914, was invalided out with an honourable discharge, and returned to America in December. On August 19, 1917, he gave a concert with John McCormack at Ocean Grove, New Jersey to an audience of 10,000 with 3,000 people turned away. But by the end of the year he had become anathema to the American people, the United States having entered the war and Kreisler being 'an enemy alien'. After war's end he returned to the concert platform and continued his world tours for many years.

On one occasion when McCormack was recording at Camden, New Jersey, Kreisler was in another studio, also recording. During a break McCormack asked Kreisler's advice as to Rakhmaninov's preferred tempo for his song O Cease Thy Singing Maiden Fair. Kreisler went into McCormack's studio, discussed the matter with the accompanist, Edwin Schneider, and singer and accompanist tried out their friend's interpretation, Kreisler almost unconsciously lifting his violin and improvising an obbligato. At the conclusion the engineers told them they had recorded the item which was subsequently issued in that format.

Kreisler's career lasted into the fifties, surviving a major traffic accident which resulted in brain injuries. His recordings of the classic concertos and a wide range of minor classics, many of which he had composed himself under various pseudonyms, his mastery of his instrument, his beautiful tone, his innate modesty, all contributed to his enduring fame as one of the greatest violinists of all time.

Edwin Schneider, or 'Teddy' as McCormack always called him, was the tenor's accompanist from 1912 to 1937. When they first met in Chicago in 1912 Schneider was already well known as an accompanist who had previously worked on tour with Johanna Gadski and Marcella Sembrich. His training had been mainly in Europe and the two men became friends immediately. In an interview with Pierre Key, McCormack's first biographer, Schneider said he came to the tenor as one who was already a worshipper at the shrine of his voice and art, and subsequently watched him grow and his capacities expand. He said that McCormack educated his audiences by the presentation of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wolf lieder together with Mozart and Handel arias, for which the singer's voice and marvellous breath control were admirably suited. McCormack in turn always considered the day he met Schneider to be a fortunate one because of the positive influence he exerted on his career. In fact he felt that no-one had a greater faith in his capabilities, even when he sometimes had doubts himself. Schneider wrote some fine songs which were incorporated into the singer's repertoire and also collaborated with McCormack in the translation into English of some of Rakhmaninov's songs, such as O Cease Thy Singing Maiden Fair and When Night Descends.

Sergei Rakhmaninov and McCormack visited each other regularly and their wives often waited for the fireworks to explode for both were extremely argumentative. The story is told of a discussion about tempo in a McCormack recording of a Tchaikovsky song, Rakhmaninov maintaining it was too fast while the singer was adamant it was correct. Madame Rakhmaninov intervened in Russian to tell her husband that courtesy demanded the singer should be allowed the privilege of being right in his own home. Rakhmaninov duly apologised, but in an undertone said 'it's still too fast!'

Vincent O'Brien was the conductor of the Palestrina Choir at Dublin's Pro-Cathedral of St. Mary. The choir had an unsurpassed standard which was built up and maintained over many years by O'Brien. It was he who granted the young McCormack a place in the choir and gave him his first professional singing lessons, which led to the singer being awarded the Denza Gold Medal for the best tenor at the Dublin Feis Ceoil (Music Festival) in 1903. O'Brien had also coached Lily Foley, and she too was awarded a gold medal at the Feis; she later became McCormack's wife. Amongst his other pupils were the author James Joyce, who was awarded the Bronze Medal at the Feis the following year, and Margaret Sheridan who became a leading soprano at the San Carlo Opera in Naples and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where she appeared with Beniamino Gigli at the British premiere of Andrea Chenier. Vincent O'Brien made several important recordings with McCormack and Kreisler and went on tour with McCormack in 1913/1914 when Schneider was unable to travel. Lily McCormack tells how O'Brien, who hadn't travelled a lot, was warned that this journey would take him almost around the world and to plan his luggage accordingly. She recalls seeing O'Brien on a railway station in Vancouver, surrounded by a small mountain of hand luggage and looking extremely harassed. McCormack exploded 'why didn't you bring a trunk and one bag and save yourself all this bother?' Vincent O'Brien, described by Countess McCormack as 'a dear, vague, artistic soul', replied 'Sure John if I'd known I was going so far I would've!'

Years later it must have been a very sad occasion for Vincent O'Brien when, having survived his illustrious pupil, he conducted the Palestrina Choir at McCormack's graveside at Deansgrange, Dublin, in September 1945.


© 1995 Theo Mortimer

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