Summary: In the tradition of the BBC's "Desert Island Discs," I asked Richard Powers to hang our conversation on a few favorite pieces among the scores that figure crucially in his new novel Orfeo. They turned out to be Gustav Mahler's "Kindertotenlieder," Oliver Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time," and Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring." Richard Powers is referred to as "the most ambitious novelist in America," a writer of Melvillian scale in our midst. I couldn't help telling him that for his mix of erudition, imagination and lyricism, I can't think of anyone else like him.
