Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

Novels:

• Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls: A Novel (Candlewick, 2011), “is brutally honest, yet so loving towards all its flawed characters, in a way that is hard to find . . .”
• Hiruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood: A Novel (Turtleback Books, 2000), “is set in Japan during the late 1960s/early 1970s, and follows a young man named Toru Watanabe, a university student living in Tokyo following the suicide of his only friend in high school, Kizuki.”

Poetry

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Mitsuko Uchida is a classical pianist who is known especially for her sensitive approach to Mozart’s works. In her approach to other composers too, this “characteristic interpretive sensitivity (exposes) a dynamic range of colors and textures.” Here is a link to her playlists. 

Violinist Janine Jansen is known for her musical sensitivity. Here is a link to her releases.

Rudolf Kempe was a Classical/Romantic conductor known for his musical sensitivity. “Throughout his career – on which he embarked as a pianist and oboist – Kempe also continued to perform regularly as a piano soloist in concertos, and was much in demand as a partner in chamber music and as a lieder accompanist. It is the experience in these more intimate fields that, in his view, enhances more than anything the musical sensitivity and the sense of ensemble that make the true artist.” One reviewer noted that “Kempe’s sensitive balancing of tempi and texture means that the music builds inexorably throughout.” Another opined that “Kempe is a master of phrasing and balance.” “He was at his best -- lively, incisive, warm, expressive, but never even remotely self-indulgent -- in the Austro-Germanic and Czech repertory.” Here is a sample of his conducting, and a link to his playlists.

As much as or more than any other composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos composed from within. The most famous example of this is the haunting melody in the aria of his Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 but his entire series of Chôros (approx. 209’) and Bachianas Brasileiras (approx. 176’) displays this quality. “In the Choros series, Villa-Lobos synthesized the popular music of Rio de Janeiro to create what has been described as 'one of the most important manifestations of Brazilian musical folklore.'” “Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas Brasileiras demonstrates how the composer achieved his own Brazilian neoclassical style in a group of works, nine suites in total, that is arguably one of the best examples of homage to J.S. Bach’s music in the twentieth century.”

• Chôros No. 1, for guitar, W. 161 (1920) (approx. 3’)
• Chôros No. 2, for flute and clarinet, W. 197 (1924) (approx. 3’)
• Chôros No. 3, “Pica Pau”, for piano, W. 198 (1924) (approx. 4’)
• Chôros No. 4, for chamber ensemble, W. 199 (1924) (approx. 6’)
• Chôros No. 5, “Alma brasileira”, for piano, W. 207 (1925) (approx. 4-5’)
• Chôros No. 6, for orchestra, W. 219 (1929) (approx. 25-26’)
• Chôros No. 7, “Settimino” (Septet), W. (1924) (approx. 9-10’)
• Chôros No. 8, for orchestra, W. 208 (1925) (approx. 18’)
• Chôros No. 9, for orchestra (1929) (approx. 25’)
• Chôros No. 10, for orchestra, W. 210 (1925) (approx. 13’)
• Chôros No. 11, for piano and orchestra, W. 228 (1928) (approx. 57’)
• Chôros No. 12, (1929) (approx. 35’)
• Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1, for at least 8 cellos, W. 246 (1930-1938) (approx. 19’)
• Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2, for orchestra, W. 247 (1930) (approx. 22’)
• Bachianas Brasileiras No. 3, for piano and orchestra, W. 388 (1938) (approx. 28’)
• Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4, for piano (orchestrated in 1941) W. 264 (1930-1941) (approx. 25’)
• Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, for voice and at least 8 cellos, W. 389 (1938-1945) (approx. 7’)
• Bachianas Brasileiras No. 6, for flute and bassoon, (1938) (approx. 9’)
• Bachianas Brasileiras No. 7, for orchestra, W. 432 (1942) (approx. 29’)
• Bachianas Brasileiras No. 8, for orchestra, W. 444 (1944) (approx. 25’)
• Bachianas Brasileiras No. 9, for chorus or string orchestra, W. 449 (1945) (approx. 10)

Isata Kanneh-Mason displays a gorgeous, soft, loving touch on piano. Here are links to her releases, and her playlists.

Robert Schumann’s works for cello put his heartfelt romanticism fully on display. Here are recordings from Ella van Poucke and Gabriel Schwabe.

John Field’s alcoholism may have made him a more introspective composer. His sensitivity is on display in his 18 Nocturnes for Piano (1812-1836) (approx. 86-90’). Performances are by O’Conor, Spada, and Roe. 

Tenor Cyrille Dubois has recorded Gabriel Fauré’s complete songs (2022) (233’). The songs are in the style of late French romanticism, and Dubois’s gentle voice suits them well.

Albums:

• Andrew Rathbun Large Ensemble, “Atwood Suites” (2018) (94’) is “set to the poetry of the renowned Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood”.
• Walter “Wolfman” Washington, “My Future Is My Past” (2018) (49’): Washington “slides into his after-closing-time voice, a deep, mellow yet still pliant instrument that can rise into a falsetto. He finds a comfortable-yet-evocative middle ground between blues and jazz on a series of standards and deep cuts.”
• Carolyn Sampson & Joseph Middleton, “Album für die frau: scenes from the Schumanns‘ lieder” (2021) (72’): sensitive readings of Robert and Clara Schumann’s songs
• Irina Kulikova, “It’s About the Touch” (2020) (73’) “is the 38-year-old guitarist’s most personal musical statement to date, featuring selections that shaped her musical personality as a child in Russia.”
• Jakob Bro & Joe Lovano, “Once Around the Room: A Tribute To Paul Motian” (2022) (39’), is a “. . . deeply felt and utterly original homage to a common inspiration and beloved colleague . . .”. “From the impressionistic resonance of ‘As It Should Be’ emerges ‘Sound Creation,’ a collective improvisation that seances Motian's thrill for spontaneity. It's an orchestral meander, each player regarding the other, waiting on the other to complete his thought and then add his own.”
• Bach Aria Soloists, “Le dolce sirene” (2023) (52’) is a sumptuous, sensitive, masterfully sung and played disc of music by “Johann Sebastian Bach, his contemporaries, and those he inspired”.
• Elena Papandreou, “Paper Moon: Songs by Manos Hadjdakis” (2023) (73’): “Elena Papandreou's poetic playing makes you think you are hearing the words, even though there is no vocal part. . . The recording captures every nuance of Papandreou's playing: as sweet, one might say, as the smell of jasmine.”

Music: songs and other short pieces

Art songs by various (named) composers:

• John Dowland, “Weep You No More, Sad Fountains” (lyrics)
• John Wilbye, “Draw On, Sweet Night” (lyrics)
• Franz Schubert, “Die Leiermann” (The Hurdy-Gurdy Player) (lyrics), from the song cycle Die Winterreise
• Samuel Barber, “Sure on This Shining Night” (lyrics)

Visual Arts

• Thomas Gainsborough, Philip James de Loutherberg (1778)

Film and Stage

• Birdy, about one traumatized soldier helping another escape from madness, adapted from William Wharton’s novel