All Comments on 'A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu'

What a nice, fresh approach. I just finished reading it for the second time. Bravo!

Probably not the place to post this story.

Obviously you know music and you understand how sensuous the classics can be. Bravo! (Brava?)

PS - you are only the second writer on this board I have ever given such approbation.

What happens with Henry? Do they go for a drink? Does he have someone now? Did he come specifically to hear her play? Or was seeing her a surprise to him? What do they talk about?

Wonderfully sweet little story aching for a next chapter.

The problem with the classics is you've little space for interpretation, even in something as extempore as the Meditation. This is why the orchestra as a whole is doing it in its sleep, thinking about the shopping or the best bet on the 2:15 at Uttoxeter: although it's said that a professional rehearses until they cannot get it wrong - which means to say they'll play it the same way not only in their sleep, but in their coffin, given half a chance - while the amateur rehearses until they get it right, the hard reality is that the amateur only performs it once or twice, so cannot afford the least possibility of getting it wrong, they must be one take wonders.

That being said, the minutiae of that small amount of space means that the first-solo performer is similarly going to be so controlling in their attention to detail to deliver it as they see it that they'll not allow these distractions to get in the way. They'll be fixed like a hawk on the director, not simply for the musicality which is somewhere in below, but also for the rest of the performance, the entire body language of the gig.

A wonderful example of this was the ELO performance in Hyde Park in September 2014. There, they did exactly this, promoted Chereene Allen, the lead second violin of the BBC Concert Orchestra, to front-lining with the band.

It's the contrast between the music as muscle-memory and the music as a statement of your spiritual identity, and in that some of these elements can be important, albeit at a far deeper psychoemotional level than this.

In a way, it's a bit like watching a music competition, where you can tell exactly who the band want to win because they play with the competitor, not the director, there's a far more dynamic conversation going on between everyone.

Me? I'm a section leader vocalist with a major concert venue, occasionally called on to do such solos. The music is what it's about, not me.

..a bit short. Four stars.

I haven't read all of your stories, but I must say that this one is a true classic!