Favourites, Vol. 1

Anonymous (Composer), Ernest R. Ball (Composer), Irving Berlin (Composer), Frederick Nicholls Crouch (Composer), Hart Pease Danks (Composer), David Henderson (Composer), William Kernell (Composer), Raymond Loughborough (Composer), Dermot MacMurrough (Composer), Charles Marshall (Composer), James Lyman Molloy (Composer), Ethelbert Nevin (Composer), John Francis Patterson (Composer), Blanche Ebert Seaver (Composer), Nathaniel Shilkret (Composer), Irish Traditional (Composer), Haydn Wood (Composer), Amy Woodforde-Finden (Composer), Josef A. Pasternack (Conductor), Lawrance Collingwood (Conductor)

Product Details

• Conductor: Josef A. Pasternack, Lawrance Collingwood
• Composer: Anonymous, Ernest R. Ball, Irving Berlin, Frederick Nicholls Crouch, Hart Pease Danks, et al.
• Audio CD (February 20, 2001)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naxos
• ASIN: B00004YYW7
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #317,851 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An interpreter's magic that is spell-binding., April 12, 2001

By	John Austin "[e-mail]" (Kangaroo Ground, Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Here is a welcome to a "Nostalgia" series by Naxos, and a welcome into the 21st Century to the great Irish tenor John McCormack. Younger shoppers may not be familiar with this remarkable singer who once rivalled Caruso in the recording popularity stakes. Blessed with the naturally beautiful voice and the secure breath control that any singer might envy, McCormack had the additional ability to communicate directly and memorably and vividly. He polished and perfected his inimitably Irish diction until he felt confident that every listener in the largest auditorium could hear and understand every word. Feeling he had no flair for foreign languages or for acting, he retired early from the operatic stage, but not before he had made recordings of several Mozart and Handel arias that have remained models ever since. Some of his recordings of lieder by Hugo Wolf, moreover, can still send shivers down the spine.

This CD of "Favourites" provides songs he recorded between 1912 and 1940. The sentiments may be passé (patriotism, nostalgia, piety, the praise of women and the sorrow of parting) but the sincerity and charm transcend fashion. There is also an interpreter's magic evident in the dramatic monologue "Kathleeen Mavourneen" and the jaunty recounting of what happened in "The Garden Where the Praties Grow" that is spell-binding.