Fretful Porpentine

About Fretful Porpentine

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

Publisher

Valerie Stivers & Jeffrey Gross

Category

arts · arts · music

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

18 Jun 2025

Latest episode

4 Feb 2026

Latest episodes

1 of 3 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   4 Feb 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Episode 3: Beethoven & Tolstoy

   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 slightly NSFW: Tolstoy is obsessed with sex and Beethoven with sonata form -- so we discuss both, sometimes simultaneously! In fa...

2. 

   11 Aug 2025

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

   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 Neville Brothers. Clune’s novel can be purchased here: Your independent bookstore or https://a.co/d/a...

3. 

   18 Jun 2025

   Episode 1: Roth & Chopin

   Classical music expert Jeffrey Gross and book critic Valerie Stivers examine Frédéric Chopin's Scherzo No. 2 and its role in Philip Roth's "The Ghost Writer," revealing connections between music and literature in this interview episode.

Inside a recent episode

Episode 3: Beethoven & Tolstoy

Published 4 Feb 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] It's like, he's using, the Russian root on this name is late, so he's sort of showing that this character figured things out late, but it's not, I don't think it's a very natural word in Russian. Like, I keep struggling to be like, how do you pronounce this? It seems odd. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 9 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

4

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32

Contact Fretful Porpentine

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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