REVIEW: Valley Classical Concerts, “Rendez-Vous”

Camille Thomas, Cello, and Julien Brocal, Piano
Smith College, Northampton, MA
https://valleyclassicalconcerts.org
March 7, 2028
by Michael J. Moran

French-born 30-somethings with extensive international training and performance experience, Camille Thomas and Julien Brocal both have strong solo careers; they also enjoy an inspired musical partnership as a duo. Their chamber music concerts mix tradition with innovation in imaginative ways. 

The duo's VCC debut program opened with a segment entitled “Grace.” It began with a “Reflection” written (seemingly improvised) by both performers on Charles Gounod’s arrangement of the “Prelude in C Major” from Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier.” A mercurial introduction highlighted the bright simplicity of Gounod’s setting, best known as “Ave Maria.” This segment ended with a stylish account of Bach’s third suite, originally for the lighter viola da gamba and keyboard, with a lively “Vivace,” a meditative “Adagio,” and a fleet “Allegro.”    

Two more segments with unusual musical combinations followed. “With Surprises” featured a haunting Brocal/Thomas “Reflection” on both a “Gnossienne” by the experimental French composer Erik Satie (who invented but never explained the title) and the more modern style of the English rock band Radiohead. “Chimera” presented a stately Brocal “Reflection” on a medley of Satie’s familiar “Gymnopedie” No. 1 (another original title) and “The Swan” from Camille Saint-Saens’ “Carnival of the Animals.”

The concert closed with a forceful but sensitive reading of Edward Grieg’s only cello sonata, dating from 1882-1883. The “Allegro agitato” alternated dramatic intensity with pastoral lyricism; the “Andante molto tranquillo” was hushed and pensive; the “Allegro molto e marcato” finale contrasted march-like and Norwegian folk-dance rhythms. Both players brought full, rich tone to their instruments, Thomas visibly relishing the many plucked passages throughout the piece, and Brocal building powerful climaxes on the keyboard.   

 A standing ovation from the appreciative packed house brought the musicians back for an encore, which Brocal introduced with mock seriousness as “delicate and intimate:” a rousing performance of Polish composer-violinist Henryk Wieniawski’s “Polonaise Brilliante,” arranged for cello. The flattering acoustics of Sweeney Concert Hall made every piece sound clear and sumptuous. The mix of classical and jazz traditions by these artists clearly had wide audience appeal.

The last concert in Valley Classical’s 47th season will present Boston-based chamber orchestra “A Far Cry” in music by Copland and Beethoven at Sweeney Concert Hall on March 21, 2026.

REVIEW: Hartford Stage, “Death of a Salesman”

Hartford Stage, Hartford, CT
www.hartfordstage.org
through March 29, 2026

by Jarice Hanson 
  
There’s something wonderful about a classic play that feels as fresh as the day it was first performed. In Hartford Stage’s production of “Death of a Salesman” audiences are treated to Arthur Miller’s masterpiece, brilliantly interpreted by director Melia Bensussen and a first rate cast that breathe new life into lines audiences may have heard before—but now, hear with greater meaning. At this time in history, when so many families are being torn apart, this story of a father, mother, and two sons and the desire for the “American Dream” is heartbreakingly poignant. 
  

Photo: T. Charles Erickson

Anchoring the cast is Peter Jacobson as Willy, who will be familiar to many audience members for his performances in several successful television series, and films.  Adrianne Krstansky as Linda is a formidable wife/stage partner. A successful Linda has to embrace the culture of a woman who gives herself entirely to the hearth and home of a family, and Krstansky has the depth to shift gears from supporting Willy to showing how she can be a no-nonsense mother who expects her sons to have empathy for Willy’s shortcomings. She is simply amazing in this role, and both actors join a pantheon of great performers who embody these characters with emotional depth. 
  
The sons, Samuel H. Levine as Biff and Max Katz as Happy, have the challenge of playing their characters at different ages, and both do so in such a way that the “older” Biff and Happy are inextricably tied to their younger selves. They do so not only with grace but with a physicality that makes each believable. 
 
The production has six additional characters who appear briefly, yet there is not one actor who doesn’t stand out. Bravo to the casting and the talent of the director and actors to work so seamlessly together, but with such complete command of their characters.  
  
A feature of this particular interpretation of the play deals with Miller’s original intention to title the play “The Inside of His Head,” a reference to the inner workings of Willy’s mind as he thinks of his past and future self. In director Bensussen’s playbill notes she writes: “We witness how he feels his life unraveling, his own self discarded, and his great fear that he is leaving nothing of meaning or substance behind.” 
 
Sara Brown’s ingenious set design is a framed house, in which furniture moves in and out of the “house” while characters appear in the distance, on a high catwalk, while establishing the mood of each scene in a 3-dimensional playing space that is metaphorically extended into the audience. 
 
Matthew Richards’ lighting design and Darron L. West’s sound design complement this suggested sensory experience, and just like a dream, or an inner monolog, Willy is drawn to the inevitable conclusion of the story while all of the other characters seem anchored to a special time and place in his mind. 
 
The stagecraft is outstanding and allows the audience to feel empathy with the characters to such a degree, many audience members wept quietly in the concluding sections of the production. 
 
What a tribute to a great writer like Arthur Miller, to find the relevance of this Pulitzer Prize winning play 70-years after its first Broadway run. This is a story and a performance that should not be missed.