The voice that inspired the "Vocalise"

This is one of the most popular of Rachmaninoff's Art songs - the "Vocalise" performed by Antonina Nezhdanova, the singer to whom this piece is dedicated. She was a good friend of Rachmaninoff and his family and worked with him a lot up until his emigration in 1918. She gave some advice to Rachmaninoff from the vocalist' s point of view while he was working on this composition and of course she was the one who primiered it in 1916 in the composer's presence. Have a listen to this piece in probably the closest interpretation to how Rachmaninoff heard it first