Lacombe garners acclaim for Dallas performances

NJSO Music Director Jacques Lacombe stepped in to conduct the Dallas Symphony to critical acclaim last weekend. The Dallas Morning Star wrote that Lacombe “led brilliantly, incisively and suavely.”

Theater Jones writes:

The announced conductor, the redoubtable David Zinman, cancelled for some unstated medical reason. However, the last minute replacement, Jacques Lacombe, turned in a surprisingly magnificent performance. The frame of his clear beat was mostly confined to the front of his body, saving bigger gestures for the biggest moments. There wasn’t a single wasted gesture; every movement was precise and communicative. Yet he produced an intelligent performance of great sweep and scope. Further, he gave the solo chairs room to play, adding their own individual musicianship to the overall effect of the whole.

He even conducted the audience. He stopped spontaneous applause, in the moments that it usually interrupts the flow of the music, with a crisply raised left hand at the same moment as his dramatic right-handed cutoff. Like every other gesture he made all evening, the audience instantly understood and compiled.