Star-Ledger: Josh Bell concert with NJSO among week’s best

The Star-Ledger names violin superstar Joshua Bell’s one-night-only performance with the NJSO at NJPAC Newark among the “The 7 best things to do in NJ this weekend”:

Joshua Bell in Newark — Violin icon Joshua Bell joins the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center [May 9] for a program focused on Sibelius' Violin Concerto, a worthy repertoire touchstone. NJSO music director Jacques Lacombe also leads Ravel's "Tzigane," Grieg's "Peer Gynt" Suite No. 1 and Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" Fantasy-Overture, njpac.org or njsymphony.org

Broadway World writes:

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO) and New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) present Bell & Lacombe, a one-performance-only program tonight, May 9, at 8 pm in NJPAC's Prudential Hall. The Grammy Award-winning violinist performs Sibelius' Violin Concerto and Ravel's Tzigane on a program that includes Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture and Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No. 1. NJSO Music Director Jacques Lacombe conducts.

"Joshua Bell is such a great musician and a great friend of the Orchestra," Lacombe says of the renowned violinist who last appeared with the NJSO at the Orchestra's Opening Night Celebration in 2010-Lacombe's inaugural program as the Orchestra's music director. "To welcome him back to the NJSO for Sibelius and some French music is going to be a lot of fun.

"Josh has positioned himself as a unique figure in the world of violin. He is a top classical virtuoso [of the caliber of] musicians like Yo-Yo Ma. He's the kind of artist who is so versatile, imaginative and talented, and yet so true and easygoing. Music just comes out of him so naturally; you just have to be there and listen and go with it."