Lacombe to make Tanglewood debut in July
NJSO Music Director Jacques Lacombe makes his Tanglewood Music Festival debut next month, leading a program of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto and a trio of works by Verdi—the overture and “Va, pensiero” chorus from Nabucco and the Act II finale of Aida—on July 27 at 2:30 pm at the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Lenox. Festival attendees can see a concert preview at an open rehearsal on July 26 at 10:30 am.
“I was excited and honored to be asked to conduct this concert at Tanglewood,” Lacombe says, “and I was very moved to be asked to replace the late Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos [a longtime collaborator with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who passed away on June 11]. Frühbeck was a former music director of the Montreal Symphony, an orchestra with which I have a great relationship, so I feel a connection to him.”
The Tanglewood experience is a special one, the NJSO music director says. “The Boston Symphony Orchestra is one of the leading orchestras in North America, and the Tanglewood Music Festival has a long and proud tradition. I have heard concerts at the festival, and it is such an amazing feeling to listen to music in that environment. The acoustics of the outdoor concert amphitheater are excellent, and it is really a great place to perform.”
Lacombe will perform with some soloists familiar to both him and NJSO audiences. Mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Bishop performed Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde during the NJSO’s 2014 Winter Festival, and baritone Stephen Powell performed Carmina Burana with the Orchestra at Lacombe’s NJSO debut in November 2008.