New Jersey Symphony Orchestra with Vadim Gluzman, Jacques Lacombe Conducts on October 24, 25, 26, 27

Music Director Jacques Lacombe and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra present Tchaikovsky's powerful and turbulent Fourth Symphony, October 24-27 in Englewood, Princeton, Red Bank and Morristown. Violinist Vadim Gluzman joins the Orchestra for Bernstein's Serenade for Violin and Orchestra on a program that also includes Berlioz's Beatrice and Benedict Overture.

Performances of "Lacombe & Gluzman" take place on Thursday, October 24, (7:30 pm) at bergenPAC in Englewood, Friday, October 25, (8 pm) at the Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, Saturday, October 26 (8 pm) at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank and Sunday, October 27, (3 pm) at the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown.

Lacombe is looking forward to working with Gluzman again. "From the first rehearsal when we first worked together," Lacombe recalls, "Vadim said something that I had also felt-it was so easy to make music together that it was almost scary. His intentions are so clear and so truthfully inspiring that it makes my job-and our job as the Orchestra-very, very easy."

A thread running through the NJSO's 2013-14 season is the exploration of composers who were also conductors. "Berlioz is one of the very first modern composer-conductors," Lacombe says. "Leonard Bernstein one of the great icons of the 20th century-Berlioz, Bernstein and Tchaikovsky is an exciting combination for this program."

Both the Bernstein and Berlioz works were inspired by literature. Berlioz drew inspiration from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing; Bernstein was inspired by Plato. "Bernstein's Serenade is a celebration of love and the meaning of love in our lives. It's a philosophical angle that is also [reflected] in Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony," the music director says. "This program is an interesting journey from comedy to philosophy to [a meditation on] the tragedy of destiny Tchaikovsky explores."