It was a sensibility both emotionally removed and tender, respectful of the compromised dignity of the least of his acquaintances, a trifle solemn, alert to signs of death and ruin, and constantly mindful of the delicate sorrows of the human condition.
He wanted the Andante to evoke "a sea of feelings, tender and sorrowful: love, sorrow, vague desires, inexplicable thoughts, illusions of a delicate dream".
Horovitz's writing is most effective when it addresses the joys and sorrows of teaching and the delicate transference that can occur between instructor and pupil.
Simplicity was not to be a hallmark of Merrick's career, of course, and the delicate colorings in Rome's score, and the sorrow-tinged seaside love story at the show's center, are sometimes grossly intruded upon by standard divertissements of Broadway convention.
Released on Netflix in the UK and around the world at 7am this morning, the episode 'Uno' saw Bob Odenkirk back as Saul Goodman (currently James McGill), with a more delicate performance that plays on the lawyer's sorrows as well as his humour.
In THE DELICATE STORM (Marian Wood/Putnam, $24.95), the sturdy sequel to "Forty Words for Sorrow," the freakish weather casts a spooky fog around Algonquin Bay, melts the ice on Lake Nipissing and rouses hibernating bears from their caves.
As his Clara, Sara Mearns is the most enthralling figure of all, using delicate gestures to impart hopefulness, quiet resolve and, in her final solo, profound sorrow, after which she flutters into the wings with her hands shadowing her eyes.
But Stephen Medcalf's delicate 1940s production makes Capriccio a valediction to pre-fascist Germany, the elderly composer's sorrow, bafflement and nostalgia conveyed in the tender face of the Countess (Susan Gritton) as she takes her place on a scruffy rehearsal stage and listens to the music curling up from the orchestra pit.
It is a face that is almost delicate in its lines, mysteriously vulnerable, with a mouth that manages somehow to convey both sensuality and sorrow.
A lingering sorrow that has long soured Helen's life and marriage to Reed also is woven into the delicate fabric of the play, which quietly concludes on a hopeful note for most of the characters.
Sorrow, sorrow, sorrow, grief, and sorrow.
