The interpretation of classical music in famous literary works is a rich topic. Countless writers have drawn on musical inspiration in their novels, and occasionally, the source music earns increased fame in return. The Kreutzer Sonata, for instance. There’s also the tradition of writers inventing their own pieces of music, to feature as a key device in the narrative. Marcel Proust’s ‘Vinteuil’ Sonata is one of the more famous examples.

The famous fictional violin sonata appears in the first of Proust’s six volumes of In Search of Lost Time, where the protagonist Swann becomes obsessed with a “little phrase”. Readers and music lovers have remained fascinated by the potential real-life inspiration behind the Vinteuil sonata, and rather than offer a...