Sweet dreams

Illness. In the middle of the night, awake. The rest of the world slumbers. I put on the radio. Music. Sleep. A melody dives through the layers of dreams, casting its hook and bringing me back to the surface. Piano, strings. A solo violin. Restless melancholy, hints of repose. What was this music, at once familiar in feel and unknown in note? In the morning, with the curtains open, the light on and the memory now hours old, I tracked down those elusive sounds. Chausson's Concert for Piano, Violin and String Quartet, the second movement - a Sicilienne.