Valerie Stivers & Jeffrey Gross

Fretful Porpentine

Arts EN ↓ 3 episodes

A podcast about books & music by Jeffrey Gross & Valerie Stivers

Author

Valerie Stivers & Jeffrey Gross

Episodes

Episode 3: Beethoven & Tolstoy 04.02.2026 1:33:30

Welcome to the third episode of Fretful Porpentine (slightly NSFW !), hosted by book critic Valerie Stivers and classical music commentator Jeffrey Gross. This podcast explores musical references in classic literature. Here we talk about Beethoven's "Kreutzer" violin sonata and Tolstoy's "Kreutzer Sonata," extraordinary pieces of music and writing. This epi is slight...

Episode 2: Michael Clune's novel, PAN -- and Bach, Boston, etc. 11.08.2025 1:13:06

Hello! Welcome to the second episode of Fretful Porpentine , hosted by book critic Valerie Stivers and classical music commentator Jeffrey Gross. This podcast explores musical references in classic literature. But in this episode we discuss something new and fascinating: Michael Clune’s novel, PAN , published on July 22nd, and the music in it: Bach Orchestral Suites, also Boston and — yes — the Ne...

Episode 1: Roth & Chopin 18.06.2025 36:34

Hello! Welcome to the first episode of The Fretful Porpentine, hosted by classical music expert Jeffrey Gross and book critic Valerie Stivers. This podcast explores references to classical music in classic literature. In this episode, we discuss Frédéric Chopin's Scherzo No. 2 in B♭ minor, Opus 31, and its mention in Philip Roth's "The Ghost Writer." Recordings used in the epis...