Critiques

This week Jacques Lacombe visited the Maison symphonique to lead a classic from the Montreal songbook, Debussy’s La Mer. Just like old times? Well, yes, if brilliant colours and vital rhythms can be said to exemplify the OSM approach. The ending of the Jeux de vagues was as calm and exquisite as the opening of the Dialogue du vent et de la mer was menacing and turbulent. Execution was superb, the principals making chamber music on a panoramic scale.

Lacombe et son pianiste Kirill Gerstein ont saisi le caractère dérangeant de cette musique [The Age of Anxiety de Leonard Bernstein] et le communiquent pleinement, jusque dans le petit dialogue en jazz de la contrebasse et du piano.