Mr. Davis's New-Age-meets-classical Christmas-music ensemble, now made up of two large bands who crisscross the country during the holidays, has sold more than 28 million Christmas records.
He later took classical lessons and was "discovered" at age 9 by the late New York City jazz aficionado Charles McWhorter, who saw him play at a festival in Siberia.
Fischer-Dieskau, who died on May 18th, at the age of eighty-six, loomed so large in the world of classical music that he became something like a city monument a statue that no longer fully registers with the crowds hurrying by.