With its focus on Irish songs and Victorian ballads, Volume 4 of the Naxos McCormack Edition completes the tenor�s 1913 recordings. McCormack could be very good in opera, but he was supreme in the world of song. Some of the ballads included on this disc belong to a world that, with the onset of war in 1914, was destined to disappear. 'Within the Garden of My Heart' and 'Goodbye, Sweetheart, Goodbye' are textbook examples of the flowery song so loved by Victorian audiences, while the 1913 'Nearer, My God, to Thee' resonates with the loss of the Titanic only a year earlier. Last but not least, this disc also includes five selections with McCormack accompanied by the legendary Fritz Kreisler playing violin obbligato from their first recording sessions in 1914. Volumes 1, 2 and 3 of the Naxos McCormack Edition are available on 8.110328, 8.110329 and 8.110330.