31
MUSICAL COURIER
April 6, 19 2 2
McCORMACK MASTERSINOER
Soloist With Boston Symphony Orchestra
Symphony Hall, Boston—Carnegie Hall, New York
© Strauss-Peyton
“Mr. Krehbiel: visit the Hippodrome occasionally, you will get a pleasant surprise/'
“The thousands who crowd into the Hippodrome of Sunday evenings to hear John McCormack do so to enjoy the sentimental balladist. Their hearts are more responsive to Pal o Mine’ and his Irish songs than to the beautiful performance of airs by Handel and Mozart, which he gives them occasionally as if to keep himself conscious of the . fact that he is an artist of fine type. The hundreds who heard him last night heard him in his better estate, as an interpreter of Bach (he sang two airs from two. of the church cantatas) and also. as a laudator of Ireland and an exponent of a new phase in Irish song song which was Irish in spirit, but uttered in the idiom which has recently reached our ears from Italy, France, and even though less effectively on the whole, from England. . . . Mr. McCormack puts his heart into the songs, and in the few instances in which the words were not clearly conveyed to the ears of the listeners the fault was not that of his voice or diction, but of a few obstreperous passages in the orchestration. Singer and composer were repeatedly called to the platform.”—H. E. Krehbiel, N. Y. Tribune.
“No other singer equal to the task.”
“Mr Monteux conducted the elaborate accompaniments to the songs most sympathetically, and Mr. ׳McCormack sang the songs as probably not. another singer could. His clear enunciation and his emotional fervor combined with the native beauty of his voice to carry all before them The large audience received the songs with enthusiasm. After Messrs. McCormack and Monteux had bowed several times, Mr. Loeffler himself appeared on the stage. Earlier in the concert Mr. McCormack sang two Bach airs, both from church cantatas. the first, Cost is Mv Dear Jesus,’ from the cantata of the same name, is only second best Bach, like unto scores of other Bach airs, but the second, ‘Take for Your Very Own, from the cantata All They from Sheba Shall Come,’ is a piece possessed of singular charm, with even a curious pre-echo in it of ‘Boris Godounoff.’ Mr. McCormack sang them both most admirably. ’—Pitts Sanborn, N. Y. Globe.
“Skill of a consummate artist.”
“A new work by Charles Martin Loeffler and the appearance of John McCormack as soloist gave an unusual distinction to the last evening concert of the Boston Symphony Orchestra s season in New York Three of Mr. Loeffler’s ‘Five Irish Fantasies’ for tenor and orchestra, his latest composition, were given, Mr. McCormack singing the solo part. He was also heard in two airs from cantatas by Bach, ‘Lost Is My Dear Jesus,’ from the cantata of the same tftle and ‘Take Thou from Me,’ from ‘All They from Sheba Shall Come. . . . Mr. Loeffler has never written for orchestra with more consummate skill, flexibility and precision of touch, with more clarity or glowing beauty of color. He has not been so modern as to neglect the voice for the orchestra. His vocal line is truly vocal and offers something that so great “ artist as Mr McCormack can lift to a plane of sustained interest, can make characteristically expressive, and in the prophetic song raise to a pitch of noble and passionate eloquence.
‘‘Mr McCormack was in splendid voice and sang these pieces, difficult and in some ways exacting'for the singer, with the skill of a consummate artist, with intense conviction, with great heautv of phrasing and clearness of diction. Mr. Loeffler was fortunate in having an interpreter who so completely assimilated the spirit of his music and gave it so inspiring an
utterance. ^ was Mr. McCormack’s singing of the two airs by Bach. The first is of an especially poignant beauty and individual character, and to both Mr. McCormack s artistic mastery and fervid delivery gave a profound impressiveness. He sang them as one who thoroughly believed in them. And in the orchestral accompaniments to Bachs airs and Mr. T oeffler’s ‘Fantasies’ Mr. Monteux achieved beautiful results. Mr. Loeffler’s orchestral writing 0 complex and difficult. Mr. McCormack aroused much enthusiasm and was called back many times.’’—Richard Aldrich, N. Y. Times.
PRESS COMMENTS:
“Sings Bach with understanding and reserve.״
“Yesterday afternoon’s concert by the Symphony Orchestra proved to be one of those rare occasions when sheer enjoyment marked each of the numbers on the program. John McCormack was soloist with the orchestra. He sang two Bach cantata airs. One was from ‘Lost Is My Dear Jesus’ and the other from ‘All They from Sheba Shall Come. Mr. McCormack sings Bach with understanding and reserve. He is therefore successful in his interpretations. The second number seemed just a little hurried, but both of the airs were done with the emotion and certain sincerity which they demand. Mr. McCormack also sang Charles Loeffler’s ‘Irish Fantasies for Voice and Orchestra.’ These were ‘The Host of the Air, ‘The Fiddler of Dooney’ and ‘Caitilin-ni-Holahan.’ . . . Mr. McCormack was in tune to the atmosphere of the work and sang accordingly.” Boston Traveller.
“The fervors and splendors of impassioned song.”
“Until his zeal for the Irish Fantasias burned vocal reluctance and disability away, Mr. McCormack sang under handicap. In the days of rehearsal a cold threatened him; by Thurs-day it settled on him; until nearly noon on Friday, he was uncertain of his powers. Through two airs from Church Cantatas of Bach, they manifestly labored. The music ran mercilessly high• as usual Bach was Writing it as though a tenor voice was some glorified instrument ot the wood-wind family, shaping phrases, setting in intervals accordingly. For once even Mr. McCormack’s tones sounded thin and wiry. Yet there was reason to admire his sustaining ot Bach’s relentless line, the skill with which he made instrumental phrases sound vocal; the directness, the simplicity with which he bore the pious sentiment. The first air laments a lost Saviour• the second speaks an humble, whole-hearted devotion. Mr. McCormack mad; both sound as the voice suddenly uplifted from depth of feeling crying for release in a silent congregation Handel writes churchly music and the listening imagination drifts away to the Royal Opera of a Georgian London. Bach writes it, and the like imagination stays fast in a Protestant meeting-house. The Fantasies, as will may do, set Mr. McCormack free. In the dream of ‘The Host of the Air,’ his tones gained the eerie colorings, bore the misty suggestion of the tale. In the fiddler’s ditty, he was master once more of the candors, the gaye_ ties the swift, sure touches that animate such glorified music of the folk. In the music ot Ireland set free by her devoted sons, he ascended from the fervors to the splendors ot impassioned song. So may he range from the musical scholarship of his beginnings, with Bach ; so may his skill in song burn white with a dream of the Si.dhe and glow red with the vision of Kathleen ni Houlihan. A blessed thing—in the arts—is an Irish temperament.—H. I. Parker, Boston Transcript.
“What Some people fail to observe.”
“Mr. McCormack’s art was more severely tested by. two arias from unfamiliar cantatas of Bach, composed in the early years of his sojourn in Leipsic. He sang them with the requisite dignity and subtlety, in English. The lack of cohesion between the organ accompaniment basedyon Bach’s figured bass and the orchestra may have had something to do with the apathy of the audience toward these two numbers. Possibly some °£	present still fail
to observe what their ears should have told them yesterday; the fact that McCormack is a very great singer, not to be judged by the type of encore song by which he delights popular audiences.”—Boston Globe.
“No other equal to the task.”
“Mr. McCormack sang these Fantasies con amore. It is needless to say that Mr. Lotffler could not find another singer so richly endowed by nature,. so artistically competent, so warmly sympathetic. No wonder that these songs were received with genuine enthusiasm, that composer and singer were applauded to the echo. —Philip Hale, Boston Herald.
“Sang like a poet and a prophet.”
“We are not propagandists. We are not discussing the freedom or Home Rule for Ireland We are speaking of Irish poems, set by Charles Martin Loeffler,. and sung hy John McCormack, in a performance long to be remembered at the concert given by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux, conductor, yesterday afternoon m Symphony Han. It was an extraordinary experience for any hearer. It provoked, a demonstration of unqualified enthusiasm, not from an audience of partisans, but from musicians and everybody fls® of response to music of extraordinary color and evocative power. Mr. McCormack sang like a poefPand a prophefi until, with the old Irish tune, ‘Colleen dhas crutha na mo,’ (‘The. pretty girl milking her cow ) set skirling by Dr. Loeffler in the orchestra, you would have said that every Celt in the universe was a-marchmg! —Olin Downes, Boston Post.
“Eloquently and stirringly.”
“Mr Monteux and fiis orchestra acquitted themselves with impeccable brilliance in this difficult score. Mr. McCormack was, of course, ideal for the songs, and he sang them eloquently and stirringly.”—Christian Science Monitor.
“Dignity, Sincerity, Conviction.”
“Mr. McCormack’s delivery of the Bach airs was noteworthy for its fine dignity, its sincerity and its artistic conviction. Those who hear this tenor only m his recitals do not kno his highest achievements.”—W. J. Henderson, N. Y. Herald.
“McCormack to the rescue of English.”
“Mr. McCormack sang gloriously, of course. It was quite a privilege to sit in Carnegie Hall where the English language has so often gone down m defeat, and hear every slightest word and syllable clear as crystal and perfectly phrased. The audience received the singer Tnd the musi enthusiastically/After several recalls Mr. McCormack	sffice
with the composer, who was forced to bow repeated acknowledgments It is a_ long time since new music has had such a cordial reception here.”—Deems Taylor, N. Y. World.
“Noble illustration of his art.”
“The Boston Symphony Orchestra for its last evening concert of the season by enlisting John McCormack as soloist reclaimed some of its lost attendance laurels. It looked like the old Boston Xys to see all the boxes at Carnegie Hall occupied.. Mr. McCormack had two widely contrasted duties to perform. First he sang two Bach arias, taken from sacred cantatas Y simple and sincere, with honest orchestral accompaniment. They constituted the high fghts of Se programme, brief as they.were. And here Mr. McCormacks versatile art was Krnnirht into nlav. for he sang them in true classic style, unaffected, with the clearest oi diction and wffh the proper religious feeling. A noble illustration of,^1S . artf if*® v offering was three Irish fantasies for voice and orchestra by Charles Martin Loeffler, who, though born an Alsatian, has long made his home near Boston. ... . Mr. McCormack was as fully in sympathy with these involved numbers as he is with his customary run of Iris folk tunes and here again his diction, style and sound feeling for the text call for app tion.”—Frank H. Warren, N. Y. Evening World.
“Master of oratorio style.״
“Mr. McCormack’s share was five solos. Two arias from lesser knownrol/and ^ehastian Bach showed the Irish tenor as a master of the oratorio style of singing, broad a a flowing Mr. McCormack used English translations of the German text and every word clearly audible.”—Paul Morris, Evening Telegram.
“A valid artistic excuse.”
" “Returning to New York for their two final concerts of the season, Pie"=	AaIjf
his Boston Symphony Orchestra brought with them last night in Carnegie Hall a	״,,,v
vou please aid no less distinguished a one than John McCormack. In departing from their usual custom however, the musicians from the Hub had a vahd artistic excuse.	Five
pr/gramme Ticluded nit only two airs by Bach but three of Charles Martin LodBe^F־״ Irish Fantasies for voice and orchestra. And what singer could have ״. ,J ״ q , more of the concert, especially in the. last-named folkdore “P־rjm־nte more	■¿¡£״e
authoritatively than the famous singer from the Emerald isle; Max smitn,
Management: CHARLES L. WAGNER D F McSWEENEY, Associate Manager 511 Fifth Avenue	New York, N. Y.
STEINWAY PIANO USED