Yes! Beethoven piano sonata + Tchaikovsky Symphony.

You got the other one too -- Beethoven violin sonata, Tolstoy story and I think Janacek String Qt.

I have to go -- past 1 here in Paris. Interesting day today -- I nearly lost my passport....

You get the next clue, harzer.

In this town an emperor was crowned and a Protestant reformist was born:

- - - O -

Noyon

Right! - over to you

Harzer

This may be too easy, but since it's morning, and a holiday in the US, and I'm actually posting this promptly, why not.

One of the Ns from Noyon is the penultimate letter in the 6-letter REAL name of the town described in a famous book by a politically exiled physician.

ttt

Is the book Chekhov's "In exile" and is the town "Gyrino"?

http://www.classicreader.com/read.php/sid.6/bookid.229/

You know what, probably not. I've no idea.

Hint: The name of the region it's in starts with a B.

It's not Vienna, is it?

Just a random guess.

Which country is it? :-)

5 more hints:
This physician also painted.
His socialist views were at odds with his country's rulers at the time.
This occurred in the 20th century. This town has a fictitious name in the book he wrote about his experiences during the exile.
The town is in a province that starts with an M, which is in a region that starts with a B.

I've no idea. You said it's easy, so I feel stupid, but, well, I can't win every time. :-)

If you can think of the book it will be easy. Maybe it's not easy if you never heard of the book. The book has the name of another town in it. The book title has a religious word in it, but the doctor was of a different religion. The fictional name of the town ends with the same 5 lettes as the real name of the town.

Fiction is really my weak point -- I don't read that much fiction; actually I don't read much at all these days.

I'll think about it some more when I get a chance. I suppose if it's obvious, it's a matter of giving Google the right things. I was surprised to get your medlar clue that way -- once I guessed the medlar, the rest was straightforward. But maybe someone else will solve it instead.

It's not fiction. It reads like a novel, but it is somewhat like a very personal memoir with aspects of an anthropological study of the people and ways in a very poor area of the region that starts with "B" in a Romance-language speaking country. It's a famous non-fiction book, widely read in translation.

OK OK, I'll tell you. It takes place in Italy, and the doctor was anti-Fascist.

Well, I guess "exiled socialist physician famous novel" turned this up:

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/clevi.htm

Carlo Levi's "Christ stopped at Eboli."

Ok, further search reveals this:

http://www.daddezio.com/italy/travel/basilicata.html

Gagliano is the fictitious name; Aliano the real name.

No, this is definitely not something I'd know.

I need to leave work now. :-)

I think I've it -- I was actually working on it while your message came in, so our messages crossed. The novel was easy to Google, but the rest was difficult.

I'm still confused though. Where was he exiled, actually? And what are the province and region? I keep seeing Lacania in my searches.

You've got it: Aliano, the real name of the town called "Gagliano" in the book.

Sorry, I didn't realize it wasn't more known. I've just known about this book since my teens, I think, since my grandmother was from a town not too far from there. You are so well informed about so many things and such a good searcher that I thought you'd get it right away, as you get some very difficult things so quickly. But maybe the book is not as widely known as I thought.

If you found Lucania as the name of the region, you were not wrong. The current name of the region is Basilicata, but it used to be called Lucania, and some people still like to use that name instead. (The dialect is usually called Lucano and the people Lucani.) Aliano is in the Province of Matera in the region Basilicata. (Basilicata has only two provinces. The other one is Potenza.) Here's a Fodors thread about the region: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34401476

Well, I don't know. We all have our strengths. Now you know that this is not my strength. :-) I should have suspected that your clues have an Italian bias though. Anyway, it's really Google that's doing the real work.

I guess I'll give a clue before I leave. Gosh this is addictive.

This one can be a bit unfair, but I guess it's sort of a fun one, and I really need to leave work.

I tried to look for this book over the weekend in the bookstore at Bon Marche and La Hune. Each time I would ask, "Vous parlez l'anglais?" They would say "non." So I would say, "Vous avez le livre ....?" Both shops were out and they claimed that the book was being ordered. The complete title is long, but the shortened version has two words.

7, 7, and 2nd letter of 2nd word is "a."

So guess the book I was looking for. The hint is that there was an article on this in the New York Times not long ago. That's why I heard about it. I thought that it was very amusing.

Whoever gets the clue can just continue without me, but I'll check back tomorrow.