VOICES THAT SOAR

I have a passion for lovely singing voices. Ever since my parents gave me a gramaphone at age 12 and a record of Enrico Caruso, I was hooked. Today’s great lovely voices that soar are the late Lucianno Pavarotti, perhaps the best tenor après Caruso, and the sublime Andrea Boccelli, Michael Bolton, sopranos Jessie Norman, the lovely voice of Lesley Garrett -- her album “So Deep Is The Night” is to kill for -- and Mary J. Blige, her “Growing Pains” album is a joy. Then the violins, saxophones, trumpets, drums bring special joy. Itzhak Perlman, prince of violin, playing lovely Fritz Kreisler compositions, or Joshua Bell, “Romance of the Violin,” which soars, and pianist Glenn Gould, “A State of Wonder” in his moving rendering of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier” and “Goldberg Variations,” and Murray Perahia’s superb Frederic Chopin études. Voices soar, pianos, guitars, oboes, saxophones, horns, drums, the entire orchestra elevates the human spirit. Musicians who devote themselves are a dream for all of us who love the sounds they create, and the emotions they generate. They are all voices that soar together and make us so grateful for the creative spirit and energy that God gave us all.