Vocalise, for soprano (or tenor) voice with piano accompaniment, came into being in 1910 as the final piece in Rachmaninov's Op. 34 song series. Most of the songs were tailored to suit the personalities of various outstanding Russian singers (including Chaliapin), and dedicated to them. An interesting feature of Vocalise, which was written for the soprano Antonina Nezhdanova, is that, as its title indicates, the vocal solo has no text: the performer can sing it through on any one vowel of her ch...