Lacombe opens Tanglewood with Boston Symphony July 3
Tomorrow night, NJSO Music Director Jacques Lacombe will open the Tanglewood festival, conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra in an all-American program including Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, Gershwin’s Concerto in F, Harbison’s Remembering Gatsby and Ellington’s Harlem.
Lacombe says: “I’m very honored to be asked to open the 75th anniversary of the Tanglewood Festival. The Boston Symphony Orchestra is a phenomenal orchestra, and the pace at which they work is just incredible. I had a great time making my debut with them last season on an interesting program of orchestra and opera works.
“I am excited to do an all-American program [on Independence Day weekend] that, interestingly enough, has links to NJSO programs I’ve conducted. Kirill [Gerstein] and I just worked together in New Jersey, so it will be fun to see him for the Gershwin concerto, which I’ll conduct with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in October; the NJSO performed Remembering Gatsby and Harlem on opening night a few years ago.
“It will be fun to revisit these works, and especially to perform Duke Ellington with the BSO and its great tradition of the Boston Pops—it’s almost like conducting a Viennese Waltz with the Vienna Philharmonic! To do Copland’s Lincoln Portrait and hear those words on the concert stage, especially in the context of what’s happening now in the world and the United States, will add a very special dimension to it.”
The BSO invited Lacombe to open Tanglewood’s 2015 season after he made his BSO and Tanglewood debuts last summer.
WAMC Northeast Public Radio interviewed Lacombe on “The Roundtable” about the Tanglewood opener. Listen to the broadcast at WAMC.org.