John Carol Case 1923-2012

[hmvman]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/jan/08/john-carol-case

I don't think I've seen a reference to his passing anywhere else on this forum.

I still love his performance of VW's Five Tudor Portraits on the HMV Willcocks recording.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Sad news; besides possessing a fine voice (still the best soloist in the Schönberg Serenade IMO) he was a marvellous teacher. I once saw him give a masterclass to a group of amateur singers in which he turned a decent soprano voice into something much better: slightly flat in pitch in her top register, he managed both to get her right in the note and to add tone and volume - the squeal of astonishment and delight she gave at hearing her own "new" voice reverberating from the back of the hall was a joy for everybody! RIP.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I heard him live in recital in Bangor in 1971. To be frank, none of us were particularly impressed by him on that day, and it was only listening to his best recordings that enabled me to appreciate his qualities:
Faure's Requiem, with Willcocks and a very young Bob Chillcott
Elgar's Apostles, with Boult
RVW's Sea Symphony, also with Boult

[Hornspieler]

JOHN CAROL CASE O.B.E.
John was born in Salisbury on 27th April 1923.
His father, William, was an undertaker by trade, a vocation John did not follow although his older sister, Mary, did, taking over the Salisbury firm when William retired. John's father was something of an amateur singer with a local reputation in and around Salisbury. Then he decided to widen his horizon and turn professional and was engaged to sing, for money, in Weymouth. But the fact that people were actually paying to hear him sing unnerved him and he never sang for money again, so he transferred all his singing ambitions onto his son, who had not then been born, but it explains why, when John came into the world, his parents deliberately christened him with a middle name, Carol, so that if and when he became a professional musician he could drop the Case and become John Carol, giving him some privacy in his private life. John never took advantage of this and simply retained the Carol as a distinctive middle name, everyone in the music profession refererring to him as ‘JCC’. From the earliest possible age John felt the weight of his parent's expectation and by all accounts he developed into a bright intelligent boy with a modest but unexceptional voice. He won a scholarship to BWS on academic grounds alone, where he was taught by William Golding, who had a great influence on John's understanding of both literature and history. John gained a local 'in-school' reputation not as a singer but as a composer and he set to music ‘The Finding of The King’ words by the then-Headmaster Freddie Happold which was good enough to be broadcast by the BBC. In 1940 he was eventually urged to try for a place at Cambridge University. Financially this was way beyond his parent's means – remember this was pre-war and before universal grants – but he gained an academic scholarship and almost in desperation he applied for a place in the choir of King's College Cambridge which did have a moderately generous financial scholarship for those with a voice good enough for their high standards. To everyone's surprise, including his own he was accepted and joined the choir of King's College Cambridge in 1941.
However no sooner was he finding his feet than he was exchanging his university gown for a military uniform and he joined the army. University under-graduates were among the first to be demobilised and in 1945 and he returned to King's, finding the enforced gap years had given his voice a chance to develop and he was soon appointed Senior Choral Scholar and whilst still an undergraduate began to sing solo for various organisations in and around Cambridge. For the very first time it began to dawn on him that his father's ambition for him to sing professionally might be realised. He left Cambridge with lots of encouragement and several singing engagements to get him started, he gave his first BBC broadcast in 1950 and in that same year sang with Vera Lynn at a Charity Concert in Plymouth – he used to
relish the fact that he once stood centre-stage with Vera Lynn, holding her hand and singing ‘We'll Meet Again’ as a duet! He appeared in the newly opened Royal Festival Hall during the 1951 Festival of Britain, when the raised platform we became familiar with did not then exist and as the only soloist in what was a largely orchestral concert he was obliged to sing whilst standing on a box, but it was forward of the conductor, so that from time to time John had to half-turn his head to check what the conductor was doing.
The next day The Times newspaper gave him a favourable review but added the comment, and I quote: "Mr Case must learn not to fidget when he is singing!"
As a matter of interest, in that concert John included some songs by the composer Gerald Finzi who, unknown to John was in the audience and after going backstage to congratulate John they began a personal and professional friendship that lasted until Gerald's death in 1956. Over time John made commercial recordings of all the Finzi songs, but of all the many recordings he made, he was most proud of the Vaughan Williams ‘A Sea Symphony conducted by Sir Adrian Boult – this was voted the best classical recording of 1968 in this country and the next year it was voted the best classical recording in the USA. But that came later:
After 1951 the work seemed to dry up as everyone had spent their budgets for the Festival of Britain and times were hard. However he did enjoy the dubious distinction of being declared an honorary-woman so that he could become the only non-female in The Townswomen's Guild when they appointed him as their Director of Music, and for them he composed ‘With this Sword’, the music for their anniversary pageant which he conducted in the Royal Festival Hall.
For a time John abandoned the notion of making his living as a solo singer and became the Director of Music at King's College School on Wimbledon Common, where the headmaster was generous enough to allow John time off for the trickle of engagements that came his way. Then came the turning point: one of his teaching colleagues asked him if he would agree to sing the solos in Vaughan Williams ‘Fantasia of Christmas Carols’ for a charity concert his wife was organising in the Central Hall Westminster. John agreed at once even though there was no fee; John was always prepared to sing here and there and everywhere, fee or no fee, just to gain experience. After agreeing, the colleague apparently paused before turning back to add: "Oh, by the way, Ralph Vaughan Williams himself will be conducting his own composition….." John said he nearly collapsed in sheer terror as in the 1950's Vaughan Williams was the grand old man of music, the foremost composer of his generation who very seldom appeared or conducted in public.
However, John sang for the great man, inwardly terrified but not showing it.
RVW, as Ralph Vaughan Williams was affectionately known, seemed to like John and his singing and he immediately invited John to sing the solos in the performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion which he conducted once a year in Dorking and which were regarded as great musical events. This put John firmly on the musical map and thereafter engagements just flowed. In fact he continued to sing in that annual St Matthew for the next 21 unbroken years, as indeed he did for the Bach Choir at the Royal Festival Hall, again for 21 consecutive years.
The rest of his career is now history, recordings, prestigious concerts all over the world, rubbing shoulders and forming musical friendships with the great and the good. Nevertheless it was a life John was never very happy with: he hated travelling when there was not enough time to enjoy the interesting places he was in, he loathed staying by himself in overseas hotels no matter what its star rating was and resented living out of suitcases and having to be on his best behaviour at receptions and so on. And he did not enjoy some of the modern music he was asked to sing and which he avoided where he possibly could.
What he really wanted to do was teach singing to the next generation of singers and to have time for composing his own music. In 1974 he was vocally at his peak, in demand and could look forward to many years of being at the very top of his profession. It was at this point however he told his agent he wanted to retire from the concert platform as quickly as he could but he was told this was not immediately possible as he had contracts to fulfil. He asked what the furthermost engagement in the diary was (the Royal Festival Hall with the London Choral Society, on Good Friday 1976) so he said: "Right – make that the last one!" Not surprisingly the next two years were the busiest of his life, every choral society and promoter wanted John in their programme for one last appearance and he made a fair number of records before that Good Friday concert – LP in those days of course, although many have been reissued onto CD.
Unbeknown to him representatives from the entire music profession and I don't just mean his singing colleagues, but orchestras and instrumentalists with whom John had worked, clubbed together and commissioned a pair of glass goblets, one etched to show Salisbury Cathedral and the second depicting King's College Cambridge, representing the two places that had been so influential in John's life.
These were presented to John in a very crowded green room, backstage of the Royal Festival Hall, before occupying pride of place in a specially illuminated cabinet in his own sitting room. Being appointed an OBE was a nice present for his 70th birthday and he was
especially pleased that the citation at his investiture by Her Majesty the Queen was: "For Services to Music".
His second career as a teacher was if anything more successful than that of singer and he was appointed to the Royal Academy of Music in London. He visited Cambridge once a week to teach his beloved King's College Choir and it is worth mentioning that many of the original King's Singers were taught by him, although it would be invidious to attempt a roll call of his pupils who have since made their name in opera houses and concert halls around the world. He judged singing competitions both here and in North America, but again not wanting to live out of a suitcase made him refuse more offers than he accepted.
This extract from the Old Wordsworthian Magazine, published in July 2012 was written by John's lifelong friend Robert Wardell and is, I believe a fitting tribute to the man who gave such great pleasure with his singing and contributed so much help to young singers with his teaching.

Rest in Peace, John. You will always be remembered for your contribution to vocal music in this country. HS

[EdgeleyRob]

So sad,RIP.

Thank you John for those wonderful RVW and Finzi records.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I sang a Faure Requiem with John Carol Case in Oxford in 1972. As a Balliol man I'm bitterly ashamed to report that it was with Trinity College choir The other work was the Walton Te Deum which IIRC was completely new to me, and a glorious revelation.

After 40+ years I can't give any clear recollection of JCC's singing but I already knew his KCC recording pretty well and he certainly didn't disappoint. RIP

[Pabmusic]

Thank you, Hornspieler, for the excellent obituary. He was a lovely singer.

[gurnemanz]

He was a soloist in my first live German Requiem in Hull City Hall in 1972. I've still got the programme. Soprano, Eileen Poulter, conductor Robert Marchant, Music Prof at the University.