The garden has been a source of inspiration for diverse artists from writers, to painters, sculptors to musicians. It was in a garden bed that Virginia Woolf arrived at her epiphany about what it takes to be an artist. It was at a garden in Giverny that Monet painted the water lilies series for which he is always remembered. It was to the “gardens of the Earth” that Mary Oliver repeatedly played tribute to in her exquisite poems. Similarly, for American poet, Ross Gay, time spent in the garden is “an exercise in supreme attentiveness.” So it is not surprising to find the garden in music too. Here is a “garden song” you may have heard before, but still worth a revisit, especially when it is being “sung” in the “crying voice” of the violin.

“Song from a Secret Garden” is the third song from an album of many beautiful songs composed by the classically trained Norwegian new-age music composer, Rolf Lovland.  Released in 1995, the album, Songs from a Secret Garden was awarded four stars by the Allmusic reviewer, Carol Wright. It also attained platinum awards in Norway and South Korea where “Song from a Secret Garden” was featured in the drama “Places of the Young” in 1995 and was also used in the 2018 Italian drama film Vittima della mia libertà (“Victim of my freedom”) by Davide Guida. Here is Song from a Secret Garden performed by Klaudia Simonova (violin soloist) with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra (conductor: Dmitry Yurovsky)