Pedestrians pass by stereosounds, the record store in Rome that the late Pope Francis frequented before his papacy. The pontiff visited the store in 2022 to bless it after a renovation.
Vincenzo Pinto / AFP via Getty Images
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tilting legend
Vincenzo Pinto / AFP via Getty Images
We tend to consider popes as people who are somehow raised from the rest of us – a few steps from the scale leading to God, perhaps. But Pope Francis, whose birth name was Jorge Mario Bergoglio, often thought of the common citizen, as heard in his comments on migrants, refugees and people on the sidelines of society. Even for his own funeral procedure, he elected for a simple wooden coffin and stipulated that his body was not buried in the glorious Saint-Pierre du Vatican basilica, but through the city in a smaller and more humble space.
Since the Pope’s death on Monday, I have learned more about his life and I found that he was indeed more an ordinary man than we could expect. In 2013, he confirmed rumors that, in his days of students in his hometown of Buenos Aires, he has already organized a concert as a nightclub. It is therefore not surprising to note that Pope Francis also had a collection of records and spoke with eloquence of his favorites.
“Among the musicians, I love Mozart, of course,” the pontiff told Father Antonio Spadaro, editor -in -chief of the Jesuit newspaper CIVERTá Cattolicain 2013. “The” and Incarnatus is ” Mass in C minor is incomparable; It raises you to God! “The other choices were a little more eclectic. Wagner was a favorite, but not just any Wagner’s recording – the Pope specifically underlined a performance of the huge composer Ring Cycle, led by Wilhelm Furtwängler, captured live in 1950 at La Scala in Milan.
Like most music lovers, the Pope had his favorite record stores. Before getting into the papacy, he attended Stereosound, a family shop near the Pantheon in Rome. (He visited in 2022 to bless the store after a recent renovation.) His personal collection included tangos from the Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla, recordings and albums of Gospel Elvis Presley by the French song singer Edith Piaf.
Knowing that Pope Francis was a music of music puts a smile on my face. It is the inspiration for the playlist below, which begins with the Pope’s personal favorites, then branches towards another music that could have corresponded to his taste. Some choices are deeply spiritual; There is work here by Henryk Górecki, Arvo Pärt and John Tavener, the trio of composers sometimes called “God Squad”. Others are more linked to the land, promoting the idea that Jorge Mario Bergoglio was one of us.
