I've put this below the line as I think it's really about literature than music - but a Mudelf might think differently. Up to you.

In an idle moment recently (washing up yesterday's dinner pots and pans) I was mulling over the impossibility, IMO, of describing a musical performance, particularly in novels. Even if the author has some musical knowledge, no amount of description ever seems to capture the actuality of either performing or listening to a performance.

I've come across such descriptive scenes here and there over the years. Many years ago I read "Young Man With A Horn" (Dorothy Baker, 1938) - based on the life of Bix Beiderbecke - and the descriptions seemed laboured and unsatisfactory. More recently I read "Saturday" (Ian McEwan, 2005) - not a book I cared for, in spite of the acclaim that surrounded it - in which the author describes his talented son's blues guitar playing. Didn't impress me one whit.

Can anyone recommend a novel in which the description of musical performance - of any sort - rings true?