voice

Sergei Rachmaninoff
(1873-1943)

Photo taken when he was 36, courtesy of Rachmaninoff a biography by Victor I. Seroff, published 1951, my most cherished book.
When its pages were first opened, the smell of tobacco reached my nose, and it was good.


​
Most beautiful face and voice of 1965 - Moffo!
Rachmaninoff listened from heaven as she sang his melody without words.

---

​Next is the first record I bought with my own money, age 16, recorded 1930. The selection at Tower Records in SF was small, and I picked Solesmes (France) without knowing that they are the foremost singers in this genre still today. They are non-professionals, and that tells you something: practice daily and mean it.

The truth I discovered a year later and hid from everyone but my parents was that I wanted to go directly to Solesmes. However, the love affair with Mom and Dad was so intense that I found it unbearable to leave them, a strong resistance to facing the fact that some day they would leave me. A friend years ago reminded me that they would die.

He was quite gentle about my dependency, a handicap I love because it had one marvelous result. See the Holy Ghost.