Final Recordings 1941-42

John Mccormack (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 17, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Pearl
• ASIN: B000000WQ6
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #717,603 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. God Keep You Is My Prayer

2. At The Mid Hour Of Night

3. When I Awake

4. Down By The Sally Gardens

5. She Rested By The Broken Brook

6. Jesus Christ The Son Of God

7. Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring

8. Silent Noon

9. The Street Sounds To The Soldiers' Tread

10. Loveliest Of Trees

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. The Devout Lover

2. Oh, Promise Me (Romanaza)

3. A Rose Still Blooms In Picardy

4. Jerusalem

5. A Rose Still Blooms In Picardy

6. Will You Go With Me

7. Night Hynm At Sea

8. Still As The Night

9. Off To Philadelphia

10. Come Back My Love

See all 23 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good sampling of the last days of an inimitable artist., April 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Final Recordings 1941-42 (Audio CD)

By the time these performances were put to wax, McCormack's voice was twenty or more years past it's prime. But, unlike most classically trained singers, McCormack's vocal limitations appear to have encouraged a more musically adventurous approach to his singing. His later recordings have an immediacy and sponteneity that is absolutely unique to a singer of his era and training. His singing is, in fact, more like that of a "pop" singer, in that the voice takes a back seat to the phrasing, and ablility to convey a lyric with honest emotion instead of histrionics. The clarity of tone, and the ring of the high notes is gone in these recordings, but the "presence" of McCormack the songster is stronger than ever. The transfers are excellent, as we have come to expect from Pearl. While the fidelity is not what most expect from today's recording techniques, to my ear they are more satisfying. The voice is recorded up-front and very clearly, and we can revel in the knowledge that it was all originally recorded "honestly"; that is, without edits and without electronic alterations of any sort. McCormack was a great artist who never became boring. In this day of bellicose tenors who are content to sing the same repertoire in the same manner year after year, that is saying a lot. If McCormack's singing is new to you, do yourself a favor and get this one. Also pick up one of his youthful operatic recitals, and you will come to know just what a great performer and amazingly varied artist he was. Enjoy, for his like will probably not be heard again.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A valuable collection., January 11, 2003

By 

John Austin "[e-mail]" (Kangaroo Ground, Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Final Recordings 1941-42 (Audio CD)

Admirers of this very major singer may well judge this to be the very best collection of John McCormack reissues on the market. It gathers together everything he recorded in the last twenty months of his singing life. Joining with accompanist Gerald Moore at London's Abbey Road Studios, he recorded sometimes as many as six items at a recording session.

Gerald Moore, in his autobiography, recalled that John McComack was averse both to rehearsing and to recording more than one take of each song. Of the dozens of items here, almost all derive from a first take. Only once was there a tiny error. It occurred in the song "The Green Bushes". Listen carefully, and you will hear John McCormack begin to sing "So sweetly she sang" before correcting it, in the nick of time, to "So sweetly sang she". There was never a chance to do another take, but fortunately the item was eventually issued after McCormack's death. Indeed, there are many items here that were issued posthumously, and at least six published here for the first time. A couple of duets with Maggie Teyte have had little or no circulation. One of them here sounds to be copied from a slightly faulty but perhaps only existing copy.

In the old-fashioned, sentimental and imprecise terminology of his day, McCormack sang from his heart, and aimed to touch the hearts of his hearers. It is fortunate that sound recording caught these performances so well, before emphysema silenced McCormack forever, and it is fortunate that Pavilion Records and supervisor Brian Fawcett-Johnston make them available today.