And it's not hard to see why. He's quite a superstar, right up there with the likes of Yo-Yo Ma. What was so special about the Elgar was the emotional range Gerhardt brought to the score. You found yourself hanging on every note of the tender slow movement, while there was great drama to the opening passages and lots of drive to the fleeting "Allegro molto" section.

There was also an amazing lushness to his playing, which had no trouble filling Veterans Memorial Auditorium.

But the Elgar was not the only offering on the program. Conductor Larry Rachleff opened with the dance suite from Manuel de Falla's "The Three-Cornered Hat," which had a sizzling finale. Jane Murray stood out for her fine English horn solo.

Then after intermission came a glittering performance of Igor Stravinsky's "Petrouchka," written just a few years before the Falla in 1911. Rachleff chose to perform the complete ballet score from 1947. He told the audience before the start of the performance that this was perhaps Stravinsky's "most virtuosic" piece for orchestra. It is certainly his most colorful and upbeat.

The score has a lot of folk-like tunes, as it tells the tale of a magician who brings to life thee puppets; Petrouchka, a ballerina and a handsome but stupid Moor. Petrouchka falls for the ballerina, who is repelled by him. She is more interested in the Moor, who ends up getting in a fight with Petrouchka and killing him. In the end, Petrouchka's ghost appears over the puppet booth to mock the crowd.

Rachleff said Stravinsky called that coda "my very best last few measures."

Anyway, the performance was stunning, with some terrific solo work from principal trumpeter Joe Foley, who was heard in a number of bright, sunny passages, and from principal flutist Susan Thomas. The male pianist, who wasn't identified in the program, was also excellent.

Fitting words to describe Sandra Brown's latest effort, since the modern master of thrillers steamy enough to fog up the windows departs from convention with a slight but equally masterful tale. This beautifully written period piece transports us to 1934 Depression-era Texas and a rooming house operated by one Ella Barron. Ella lives there along with her autistic son and a number of borders, soon to include one David Rainwater, who comes with a suitcase full of secrets -- including the fact that he's dying of inoperable cancer and just wants to live out his days in peace.

Nonetheless, Ella finds her sleepy life changed forever with Rainwater's arrival. First, he finds ways to reach her son, Solly, where all other efforts have failed. Then Rainwater begins to involve himself in the politics of the era, specifically the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation's efforts to "aid" indigent farmers by siphoning off and/or murdering their herds. His resolve in helping those rocked by financial ruin (eerily mirroring the plight of so many today) makes "Rainwater" a parable perfect to showcase Sandra Brown's newly displayed brilliance as a skilled lyricist as well as storyteller.

"Just before dawn. Bitterly, corrosive cold descended, creating a bleak, concrete wasteland. The street is deserted except for a man watching the ruins of a recently burned-out pawnshop."

So opens "Haiku" (Pantheon, 224 pages, $24.95), Andrew Vachss's latest voyage into the seedy, normally unseen underbelly of humanity. Like Sandra Brown, he breaks new ground here by abandoning his long established series character Burke and his adopted family of outcasts, in favor of a new dark hero and HIS his adopted family of outcasts.

That dark hero is a former brilliant martial arts sensei named Ho, who, like all of Vachss' protagonists, is running and/or hiding from his past. Like Burke, Ho has teamed up with a distressed band of outcasts in search of their own sense of belonging, including a dangerously deluded Vietnam vet, an ex-gangbanger, and several mismatched quasi-degenerates living off the grid. I say "quasi" because these are men still living life based on a sense of honor and devotion to a cause.

And that's where the problems with "Haiku" start. As was the case with Vachss' later Burke novels, the plot is virtually nonexistent. The action, what little there is, revolves around a woman spotted throwing something into the river that may make her a ripe target for blackmail and an urban reclamation project threatening the cherished library belonging to one of Ho's adopted family members.

The best of the Burke books cast him as a Batman-like crusader standing up for those who couldn't stand up for themselves, tales chock full of marvelous villains, colorful foils, and seismic confrontations. Vachss is every bit the writer he was then, but not nearly the storyteller, his style so overwhelming his substance that "Haiku" seems as thin as the three-line Japanese poem for which it's named.

Jon Land (jonlandauthor@aol.com) of Providence has published two dozen thrillers so far.

Robert W. Merry, former editor and president of the Congressional Quarterly, has written an informative and entertaining biography of the most consequential one-term president in U.S. history.

By the end of Polk's presidency in 1849, the size of the United States had been increased by a third. Polk assumed office at a "critical moment in the Texas annexation matter," according to Merry. As president he "played a decisive role in bringing Texas into the American union," along with orchestrating "a complex and dangerous diplomatic and political dance that brought the most desirable expanses of Oregon into the Union."

"A Country of Vast Designs" is a must-read for those who enjoyed Jon Meacham's Pulitzer-prize winning Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Andrew Jackson, "American Lion" (2008).

Erik Chaput (ejchaput@maxwell.syr.edu) of North Providence is a Ph.D. candidate in American history at Syracuse University.

In the modern dance troupe's new show, which opened Thursday and runs through Saturday at Rhode Island College, there's an emphasis on making a statement. Three of the program's five dances do that, and a couple of them do it well.

In terms of integrating artistry and expression, "Wien" is the winner. The piece, which was choreographed in 1995 by Pascal Rioult, makes its Rhode Island premiere, and thrives on contradiction. There's the gentile waltz music of Ravel offset by the often hostile movements of six female dancers who circle the stage clockwise in a cluster, again and again, while circling among themselves. The group shows both cohesion and dissension. The dancers peacefully partner with each other, punctuated by an occasional attempt at strangulation.

This is darkly comic. It's the 1940s, which would explain the women's simple and drab peasant dresses, and their sudden urge to goose-step and salute.

There's an artfully expressed political and sociological message of the individual living within in the group, and the group discarding (pushing, slapping, etc.) the nonconformist.

"Freedom in the Box," a premiere choreographed by Stephanie Stanford, Fusionworks' assistant artistic director, is serene, slightly somber and otherwise soothing. Six dancers in simple, basic and contemporary attire turn and twirl gently and gracefully to the singing of a female vocalist who imparts a folksy feel. If there's a message, it's open to interpretation; although the piece is reportedly about people trapping themselves in particular ways of life, that isn't apparent.

The show ends with "Finning," a premiere by Deb Meunier, Fusionworks' artistic director. The piece is in three movements, and it's big on ambition, providing commentary about the savagery of the practice of finning, where sharks are caught, their fins are cut off for consumption, and the sharks are tossed back in the water to slowly die.

That's not the sort of thing you generally see set to dance, but it's clearly and cleverly expressed here. Sharks (portrayed by six women) happily swim (dance). Then there's a dancer who's bright and shiny, with gold at her wrists and ankles, and fluorescent yellow strings hanging from her arms, legs and waist. She's a lure. She undulates in the movement of the water. And she brings about the capture and killing of the sharks.

The sharks suffer without their fins, nicely conveyed by dancers putting their arms behind their backs, and struggling to balance and move without them.

The dance ends cheerfully, showing a world where there's no lure, and no practice of finning. The piece, which is generally slow and mournful, delivers a clear environmental message.

Filling out the program are a couple of mood pieces, one African, one Caribbean.
"Bushasche Etude," choreographed by Primus, features eight female dancers, classical African drumming music, and classical African movements -- of bent-knee side shuffles, hopping and jumping, and an arm gesture of spear throwing. "Buenos Dias," choreographed by Meunier in 2002, is a pleasing, toe-tapping number featuring eight women in bright dresses (orange, lime and pink), the music of Carlos Santana and a cheerful, celebratory feel that makes no attempt to make a message, other than enjoy.

Fusionworks' fall show continues Saturday at 8 p.m. in Sapinsley Hall at Rhode Island College, 600 Mount Pleasant Ave., Providence. For tickets, $25, $20 for seniors, call (401) 456-8144. For more, visit fusionworksdance.org.

Tickets for "Shakespeare in Rep!" are $28 to $40. Call (401) 723-4266 or buy on line at www.grammtheatre.org.

Meanwhile, Trinity Rep is offering pay-what-you-can seats for the opening night of "A Christmas Carol", Friday at 7:30 p.m. PWYC tickets go on sale in the box office at 201 Washington St. at 6:30 p.m. that evening with a limit of one ticket per person.

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn describe three realities taking a toll on girls and women: sex trafficking, gender-based violence, and maternal mortality. The Pulitzer Prize-winning authors, both New York Times journalists, write as a married couple who lived abroad with their children.

They interviewed and photographed women in Asia and Africa for this book, which is both harrowing and hopeful. They provide dozens of Internet resources and describe projects developed by indigenous activists. Despite horrific cruelty -- battering, burning, rape, genital mutilation, abduction, acid attacks, brothels, hunger, illiteracy, and lack of medical care -- victims are fighting back and inspiring others to join them.

In India, young Usha Narayane resisted a powerful man who tyrannized the slum where she lived. He incited gang rapes and savagely butchered those who resisted. Narayane forced police to arrest him and led hundreds of "untouchable" Dalit women to the courthouse, where they disarmed police with chili powder, drew knives and stabbed the unrepentant terrorist to death.

While the authors do not condone murder, they see that female empowerment will exact a price. It can also yield a profit if we support this momentum to "unlock women's power as economic catalysts."

Funders, think tanks, and military leaders are paying attention. WuDunn and Kristof show why the Council on Foreign Relations has progressed beyond MIRV warheads and NATO policy to discuss maternal mortality. The Joint Chiefs of Staff are talking about girls' education in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The boots on the ground in this war are the bare feet of courageous girls and women.

A Chinese proverb reminds us: "Women hold up half the sky." The book's cover art features the bluest of skies held aloft by a dozen women's eyes. Many are smiling beneath the subtitle: "Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide."

Nicholas Kristof will visit Providence on behalf of Day One's work with survivors of sexual assault on Dec. 10th. For information about tickets or sponsorships, go to dayoneri.org or call Christine Pellegri at 421-4100, ext. 108.

Anne Grant is a frequent reviewer who writes about children and their mothers caught up in the state welfare and court systems, at littlehostages.blogspot.com (parentingproject@cox.net).

The play won a Pulitzer and is now getting a solid student showing this week at Rhode Island College.

This is a tightly knit play by one of the best craftsmen in the business. Lindsay-Abaire was a student of Christopher Durang at Juilliard, and produced the zany "Fuddy Meers" that was staged not long ago at 2nd Story Theatre in Warren. But "Rabbit Hole" is a very different sort of animal, a poignant, rather serious look at a couple trying to cope with the unthinkable.

There are uncomfortable moments of humor, to be sure, but "Rabbit Hole" is mostly a study in grief, and the strains that causes on a relationship.

Four-year-old Danny was struck by a teenage driver as he ran into the road chasing his dog. But we get only hints of this as the play opens with sisters Rebecca and Izzy discussing Izzy's pregnancy, a bitter reminder that she is having a child when Rebecca has lost hers. Husband Howie enters and tries to get frisky with Rebecca but she is not interested. She has closed down and won't consider having another child.

This leads to frustration on Howie's part, to the realization that life will never quite be the same. And that is sort of the crux of the play, having to move on when there is no clear path, no clear solution to the problem at hand.

In some ways this is not as brilliant a work as "Fuddy Meers," which is about a amnesiac who is kidnapped by a madman and the host of wacky situations that follow. I can't say I was disappointed with this production, but I felt it was a little flat, devoid of the surprises and unexpected and eccentric twists of Lindsay-Abaire's earlier work.

He is a brilliant writer, though, and the student cast did a fine job getting his lines across. Allison Crews as Rebecca was very strong, a bottled-up woman who could be difficult but also understanding. Her awkward scene with the driver who killed her son, played by Adam D. Bram, was really quite moving. And Jeffrey Church's Howie was totally believable.

As act two opens Howie is holding an open house, trying to down-size to a smaller home that doesn't have so many memories. But he has kept son Danny's room intact, which tends to freak out prospective buyers. That leads to a wrenching scene in which Rebecca and her mom start packing up Danny's stuffed toys and books.

Tara Gray plays the mother, Nat, with just the right mix of caring and insensitivity as she continually compares the death of her adult son to the loss of Danny. Crews and Gray play off one another nicely.

Samantha Acampora's Izzy is a breath of fresh air, a sort of down to earth sibling who has no trouble understanding why sister Rebecca hauled off and smacked a negligent mom in the super market.

"Rabbit Hole" has no great climaxes, but it is filled with moments of truth, moments that tell a lot about our emotional make up. It really is a study in survival, as Howie and Rebecca ponder their next move. That is, in fact, how the play ends, with the couple seated on a couch saying "and now what."

"Rabbit Hole" continues through Sunday at the Helen Forman Theatre at Rhode Island College.

Ken Bell, the sports director for WLNE, Channel 6 in Providence, will be recognized for his 30 years covering high school, college and professional sports. Les Breault, chief photographer for WPRI TV, Channel 12, will be recognized for his 32-year career covering politics and breaking news in Rhode Island.

The awards ceremony is at 6 p.m. in the Granite Linke Golf Club, 100 Quarry Hills Dr., Quincy, Mass.

Shinedown, Puddle of Mudd and Skillet will play at the Dunkin' Donuts Center, 1 La Salle Sq., Providence, on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010 at 7:30.

Shinedown have had 10 top-5 rock radio hits, including the latest single, "If You Only Knew" and the top-5 pop single "Second Chance." They're also a nominee at this month's American Music Awards.

Tickets go on sale Saturday, Nov. 21, at 10 a.m. They are $31.50 and can be had at the box office, all Ticketmaster locations, by calling (800) 745-3000 or by going to www.ticketmaster.com.

In his recent book, "Then Belichick Said to Brady...," Donaldson puts the Patriots' success over the past decade into wider perspective. He writes about the humble beginnings of the franchise in 1959, when football took a back seat to baseball, basketball and hockey in New England. Football had gained traction in the college arena, but in those days, the professional team of choice for New England fans was the New York Giants.

Once established, the Patriots franchise worked through a number of challenges, including coaching changes, monetary issues, and most notably the lack of a permanent place to play. Donaldson, however, mines interviews with players from the early years, including Larry "Ike" Eisenhauer and Gino Cappelletti, to describe the team's gritty nature.

"The Patriots practiced in those days at a high school field in East Boston, near Logan Airport," he writes. Eisenhauer tells him: "We'd sit on milk crates and watch game films shown on sheets hung on the walls of the locker room." That's a far cry from the Patriots' top-notch facilities in Foxboro today.

"The Patriots practiced in those days at a high school field in East Boston, near Logan Airport," he writes. Eisenhauer tells him: "We'd sit on milk crates and watch game films shown on sheets hung on the walls of the locker room." That's a far cry from the Patriots' top-notch facilities in Foxboro today.

As Donaldson progresses through the Chuck Fairbanks-coached teams of 1976-1978, the 1985 AFC Championship team, and the Bill Parcells era, it becomes clear that the "underdog" tag the Patriots still wear proudly (if a bit misguidedly now) is ingrained from years of previous adversity, disagreements and near-misses in terms of personnel.

In 1969, for example, the Patriots ownership decided to make a coaching change, but passed over eventual Hall of Famer Chuck Noll for the job. In 1985 they traded their first-round pick in the draft to the San Francisco 49ers organization, which promptly used it to select Jerry Rice.

Perhaps the most sobering story describes the injury that paralyzed wide receiver Darryl Stingley in 1978. Without question it is the saddest moment in the team's relatively short history, but it also gives younger fans some insight into the bitter rivalry with the Oakland Raiders that had been simmering for quite some time before that incident and continued to for years after.

It is somewhat fitting then that Donaldson positions the 2002 AFC Divisional Playoff "Snow Game" against Oakland as the first chapter of the book. Also known to many as the "Tuck Rule Game," it was both the continuation of controversy between the Raiders and the Patriots and the beginning of New England's modern dynasty.

Although Donaldson's descriptions of Tom Brady are a bit fawning, he does a wonderful job of highlighting Bill Belichick's strengths and weaknesses, including his involvement in the "Spygate" videotaping scandal, and the unlikely story of his rise to coaching greatness.

The book has a foreword written by Hall of Famer Andre Tippett, and it comes with an audio CD featuring interviews with former players, including Steve Grogan and Jon Morris. For dedicated and casual fans alike, it's an entertaining ride through all the peaks and valleys that make up the New England Patriots saga.

Kristin Dumont is a writer, editor and frequent reviewer from Cranston.

The last couple of tours of "Rent" to come through town were pretty green, with kids right out of music school in the cast. But this tour is populated with talent from the original Broadway run, and it shows. The acting was right out there on the edge, and the singing couldn't have been tighter. And the audience ate up every bit of it. This was a pumped crowd that applauded every entrance and every hit number.

"Rent," of course, is a loose reworking of the Puccini opera "La Boheme," although creator Jonathan Larson has traded a Left bank garret for a lower Manhattan loft, with characters dealing with drug addition and the specter of AIDS. The plot in the Larson adaptation is not nearly so strong as the opera, though. It's a little thin. But the score is fabulous with some great tunes that were often sizzling in the hands of this outstanding cast.

Adam Pascal as Roger and Lexi Lawson's Mimi teamed up for an awesome version of "Without You" in the second act, with Pascal and Anthony Rapp, the Mark of the show, producing some wonderful duet work later on.

Pascal was probably the best male voice on the stage. "One Song Glory" was terrific, with lots of edge. Among the women, Lawson stood out for the power and lushness of her pulsing soprano.

"Rent" sort of plowed new ground for musical theater with its real-life themes of AIDS, gay sex and drug abuse. It opened the way for shows like "Avenue Q" and "Spring Awakening". It's hard hitting in some respects, but has an uplifting message found in the hit tune "Seasons of Love." This the audience greeted with tumultuous applause, as the singers turned it into a rousing gospel-type number.

The sets are pretty gritty, just a few tables and chairs, and a tower of junk, just the kind of stuff you might find in a low-rent loft. As for the band and keyboard player David Truskinoff, they were first rate.

Again, you don't have to be a Rent-o-phile to enjoy this show, for the music is fine and the cast is about as polished as you're going to find on a Broadway tour.

Rent runs through Sunday at PPAC, 220 Weybosset St., Providence. Tickets are $68-$38. Call (401) 421-2787 or log on to www.ppacri.org.

The EP "More Fuel for the Fire" will come out Dec. 1 only on iTunes. It will feature three new studio tracks and a live version of "Straight Into A Storm," from "Born on Flag Day," which Rolling Stone called the "country breakthrough of the year."

By the way, Deer Tick also made a live version of "Baltimore Blues No. 1" as a Veteran's Day present to "all troops, active and non-active" (although anyone can download it), available at http://military-entertainment.military.com/2009/11/gift-from-deer-tick.html. It's worth downloading for the song itself and for the very funny, and very accurate, things the poster there has to say about some of the other bands who offer free downloads in "support of the troops."

Fans can get a double dose of Team Twilight at a few cinemas -- Island Cinemas, Providence Place Cinemas and Showcase Cinemas Warwick -- where midnight showings of "New Moon" are preceeded by a 9 p.m. screening of "Twilight."

"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" is rated PG-13.

By Bill Van Siclen
Journal arts writer

Maxwell Mays, a Providence-born painter whose whimsical depictions of Rhode Island made him one of the state's best-known artists and who combined a playful folk-art style with an encyclopedic knowledge of local history, died Monday at age 91.

A family spokesman said Mays, who had been in ill health for the past few years, died peacefully at his home in the Greene section of western Coventry.

In a career that spanned more than six decades, Mays painted nearly every inch of Rhode Island, from the bustling docks of Newport Harbor to the small towns and villages of South County to the grand Federal Style mansions of Providence's Benefit Street.

At the same time, Mays happily acknowledged that he wasn't much interested in modern life. Instead, he was fascinated by history -- particularly the history of his native New England -- often spending weeks digging up information on everything from geography and architecture to genealogy and politics before embarking on one of his detail-filled paintings.

Journal file photo/ Sandor Bodo
A Maxwell May's painting depicts houses on the water at Pawtuxet Village.

Despite the exhaustive research that often went into his work, May never intended his paintings to be seen as visual history lessons. A gifted raconteur as well as a talented artist, he was essentially a storyteller who used his bright, child-like canvases to spin tales -- some true, some embellished with a wry sense of humor -- about his beloved home state.

Though Mays' work is often compared to that of so-called "naïve" artists like Grandma Moses, Mays' himself bristled at such comparisons. "I don't know where they get that naïve stuff," he complained in a 1998 interview. "It was invented by art people who needed a word for artists who didn't have any formal training. That's not what I do."

Instead, Mays said, his goal was to "capture a sense of delight -- the feeling we all have as children of looking at something that gives us delight."

Vogel, late of Brown University and now chair of the playwrighting department at the Yale University School of Drama, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for "How I Learned to Drive." Her new play takes place on Christmas Eve 1864. In the White House, President and Mrs. Lincoln plan their gift giving, while on the Potomac a young rebel soldier challenges a Union blacksmith's mercy. In the streets, a fugitive from slavery searches for her daughter.

"This story of a nation in transformation, emerging from slavery is half imagined, half true," said Vogel, "and told partly in honor of all the stories that are erased from history by the hand of historians, all the stories hidden from us by prejudice."

During the course of the run, 34 choral groups from throughout the Boston area will take part in the production. Tickets range from $20 to $82.50. Call (617) 266-0800 or log on to www.huntingtontheatre.org.