Search - Giuseppe Mario Sammarco, Reinald Werrenrath, Gaetano Donizetti :: John McCormack-Aris, Recitals And Songs

John McCormack's career as an opera star was relatively brief, though it included a number of engagements at Covent Garden and the Met between 1907 and 1919. It was as a recitalist, from about 1910 until the mid-1930s, that he enjoyed his greatest success. Yet he might have ended up a footnote in musical history had it not been for one thing: the phonograph. McCormack's 791 surviving recordings, made between 1904 and 1942, cover a formidable range of material, showing what a versatile artist he was. His vibrant timbre and clarion brilliance--so refreshing to encounter, even in 70-year-old transcriptions--utterly annihilate the wimpy efforts of such popular modern-day "voices" as Andrea Bocelli. Here was someone who really knew how to sing, who cultivated a burnished beauty of tone from bottom to top, whose delivery sparkled. All of that can be heard on this three-CD compilation from Nimbus, with individual discs showcasing the Irish-born tenor in operatic selections, popular and Irish song, and recital repertory recorded with the violinist Fritz Kreisler. The choice of material proves thoroughly representative, and the remasterings are more than satisfactory. --Ted Libbey