The name Vincent O'Brien is practically synonymous with horse-racing, thanks to the unparalleled exploits of a gifted trainer, now retired. But there was another Vincent O'Brien who made a significant mark in a different area of Irish cultural life. He was the first musical director of Radio Eireann, master of the Palestrina Choir in Dublin's Pro-Cathedral, and coach of the great tenor John McCormack.
Another part of his musical legacy lives on today in the singers of Our Lady's Choral Society, one of Ireland's leading large-scale choirs, best-known for their pre-Christmas performances of Handel's Messiah and their annual renderings of extracts from that work in Fishamble Street on the site of its 1742 premiere.
Next Wednesday, May 6th, at the National Concert Hall, Our Lady's Choral Society will honour the 50th anniversary of Dr O'Brien's death with Gounod's Messe Solennelle de Sainte Cecile and the first Irish performance of Poulenc's Stabat Mater. The concert will also mark the 25th anniversary of the death of Dr John Charles McQuaid, under whose patronage as Archbishop of Dublin the choir was founded.
McCormack's "discovery"
When Dr O'Brien retired from his post with the State broadcasting service in 1941, John McCormack - who made a speech at the testimonial concert - recalled his "discovery" by O'Brien in 1902, when McCormack was 18: "One Sunday morning I walked into his choir in the Pro-Cathedral, Marlborough Street, and I asked Mr O'Brien to allow me to sing for him with a view to obtaining a place in the cathedral choir. I sang Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms. When I had finished, Mr O'Brien said, `You'll do.' "
In a feature in The Irish Times around that time, Dr O'Brien is depicted sitting in the elegant music room of his house in Parnell Square. "You know," he says, "I have never changed anything in this room. This is the very instrument [pointing to the larger of the two grand pianos] on which I taught John McCormack; where James Joyce came for singing lessons - a lovely tenor, before turning to writing . . ."
The genesis of Our Lady's came four years later, and was recalled as follows by Dr O'Brien's son, Oliver: "One night in 1945 we were leaving the practice room of the Palestrina Choir in the Pro-Cathedral when my dear father and Fr Andrew Griffith CC began chatting about the formation of a new choral society - Dad having expressed the wish that he would like to conduct another performance of Messiah before he retired. So came about the birth of Our Lady's Choral Society." With the support of Dr McQuaid, singers were recruited from church choirs around the Dublin diocese - over 360 arrived for the first rehearsal in the Model Schools in Marlborough Street.
Margaret Burke-Sheridan
At Christmas that year, two performances of Messiah were given in the Capitol Theatre, the first conducted by Vincent, the second by Oliver. The first-night audience included the President, Sean T. O'Kelly, the Taoiseach, Eamon de Valera, and the celebrated diva Margaret Burke-Sheridan, another of Dr O'Brien's pupils. According to newspaper accounts, she could be seen joining in the Hallelujah Chorus from her box. After Dr O'Brien's death in 1948, Oliver O'Brien took over as music director of the choir. Highlights of its early years included a performance of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius with the legendary contralto Kathleen Ferrier, shortly before her cruelly premature death. This was the first of several performances under the baton of the leading English conductor Sir John Barbirolli, including concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, home of Barbirolli's Halle Orchestra. The choir, together with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, also presented Gerontius at the Berlin Festival of 1956, conducted by Herbert Bardgett, chorus-master of the Huddersfield Choral Society. "In all my long experience, I do not recall a reception comparable to that which we received from the Berlin audience," wrote Oliver O'Brien. "The clapping continued for at least a quarter of an hour."
Barbirolli, according to his widow, Lady Evelyn, always conducted Our Lady's Choral Society "with particular pleasure. He found the response always so sensitive, warm and musical, and so wholehearted. He loved the actual sound of the choir; he felt it was as beautiful as any choir he ever conducted around the world."
Perhaps, like football teams, choirs can manage to retain a distinctive style over the years, despite changes in personnel, so that Our Lady's still has that "wholehearted" quality that so pleased Barbirolli. I like to think so, anyway - for here I should declare an interest: for the past five years I have been adding my 5 per cent or so to the choir's tenor line. The maestro now is Proinnsias O Duinn, Principal Conductor of the RTE Concert Orchestra, who succeeded Oliver O'Brien in 1979. He has a rare gift for making rehearsals almost as pleasurable as performances.
Musical menu
It's a smaller choir than in the early days - around 110 singers. It's less "churchy" too (as the Ireland of today is less churchy than the Ireland of 1945) and membership is open to anyone, subject to audition. But I hope that Dr Vincent O'Brien would still approve of the sound we make. The musical menu for next Wednesday's "Founders' Memorial Concert" at the NCH is a tasty French one. For starters, the Palestrina Choir will perform motets by the 20th-century composers Poulenc and Durufle. The main course is Poulenc's Stabat Mater, full of changing moods and spicy, jazzlike harmonies and dissonances. Then, a rich, elegant dessert: Gounod's Messe Solennelle, with its honeyed melodies and generously flavoured harmonies. Irresistible fare, I'd say. But I'm biased of course, so don't take my word for it. Come and hear for yourself.