The occasion of this ambient excitement was a performance by the NSO of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Otello” that doubled as the inaugural installment of “Opera in Concert,” a new series driven by the pledge of maestro Gianandrea Noseda to perform at least one concert presentation of an opera each season. (...)For an opera so rife with betrayal, deception and jealousy, “Otello” on Friday was nothing but matches made in heaven: the NSO and a cast of talented singers; the chemistry and compatibility of the singers themselves; Noseda and Verdi (!). It was an evening of little surprises, high drama and big payoffs. (...)“Otello” is about as late Verdi as you can get. The composer’s penultimate opera premiered in 1887 and followed an extended retreat/intended retirement from opera. As such, it teems with pent-up musical ideas. Sans staging and lighting and costumes, the ideas become the architecture, the score becomes the set, and the psychological depth of Verdi’s music takes center stage — especially so under Noseda, who brought his reliable detail-forward approach to the music without abandoning any of the requisite bombast.(...)

Noseda brought out not just the music but also the musicality of Iago’s machinations — the intricate, nearly Baroque designs of his deceptions. Or, when messing with Cassio, the sinister undercurrents beneath the frothy surface of their friendship. Sturdily sung — with impressively instant dislikability — by baritone Roman Burdenko, this was an Iago that sounded classic and canonical with a lurid confidence that felt fresh and contemporary, i.e., what we now call “toxic.” Noseda veiled Iago’s lies with innocent violins and sharpened Verdi’s hooks to make them linger in the memory like planted suspicions. The Washington Post, Micheal Andor Brodeur

(...) Yet Noseda and his forces also put the grandeur front and center. Sitting in the Kennedy Center concert hall and seeing the wall of bodies on stage, the large orchestra below and the blended forces of the Choral Arts Society and the University of Maryland Concert Choir arrayed in the chorus seats above them, communicated a palpable sense of power and spectacle even before the first notes resounded through the hall.

Noseda’s NSO is playing better than any other incarnation experienced of that orchestra. In the early bars, its self-awareness gave the music a sense of polish that, combined with the chorus’s glass-clear diction, made one initially think the evening might offer Verdi at an aestheticized remove. But Noseda is too much an opera guy, and particularly an Italian opera guy, to let that happen. He likes grace, but he also gets drama. The result was scintillating, edge-of-the-seat Verdi, played throughout with an extra awareness of just how beautiful this score really is. But what you really need to get memorable Verdi are memorable singers; and here, too, the NSO came through — likely boosted by Noseda’s relationships with the singers he’s worked with at his previous post at the Turin opera and his current one as the musical head of the opera house in Zurich. (...)

Noseda led everything with fluidity and utter commitment, reminding everyone, after his recent “Ring” cycles in Zurich, that this is his home turf; almost doing the limbo backward over the rail of his podium at times in his effort to include the vocal soloists in the wingspan of his conducting arms. And the orchestra kept on shimmering. The trumpets announcing the arrival of emissaries from Venice, stationed in the balcony above the chorus, were preternaturally gorgeous, like a Last Judgment heralded by angels who have only good news to bring. Washington Classical Review, Anne Midgette

National Symphony Orchestra (USA)

If the orchestra of the USA’s capital has lagged in recognition behind the old-established Big Five of America (Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh) or the newer wave of superb West Coast ensembles like Los Angeles and San Francisco orchestras, things may be changing. Led by Gianandrea Noseda, well known for his work at the BBC Philharmonic and Turin Opera, and as a dynamic guest with the LSO, the National SO of Washington is sounding very fine, the ensemble tighter and more punchy, the winds showing real character. These qualities are well demonstrated by the first releases in a series focusing of the music of the African-American George Walker (1922-2018), undeniably thorny, but music that responds excitingly to the kind of committed advocacy that Noseda and his orchestra bring. But if you want to sample them on more familiar ground, there’s a Beethoven symphony cycle in the offing – and we know how exciting Noseda can be in that music.

Danish National Symphony Orchestra (Denmark)

Under its clearly inspirational Italian chief, Fabio Luisi, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra – which is fast approaching its centenary in 2025 – has made an impressive debut on DG with a cycle of Carl Nielsen’s symphonies (soon to be supplemented by the three concertos). Bringing a completely idiomatic approach to the composer, the playing of the Danish orchestra is, in ES’s words ‘personal to the point of posessiveness. This orchestra lives its heritage’. An impressive partnership, Italian warmth meeting Nordic cool, that is well worth watching.

Le Concert des Nations (Spain)

Rather like Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Frans Brüggen, Jordi Savall stepped up from soloist (he remains a magnificent viol-player) to being an inspired conductor – and with an ever-expanding repertoire. At home in Baroque and Classical music, he’s forging forward into the 19th century with performances of impressive ambition and poise. Of their Schubert Unfinished and Great C major coupling, David Threasher commented how ‘the ensemble remains solid even in the motoric, stamina-sapping string figures that propel the finale of the Ninth,’ resulting is what may now be ‘the ideal choice’. This impressive period ensemble, largely employing musicians from Mediterranean and South American countries, has tremendous personality and a unique spirit.

"If there’s a trick to making this well-trodden symphony sound fresh, I suspect it’s at the heart of Noseda’s approach: Keep it simple, let it do its thing, tend its garden. Like a new day, it only requires we awaken to it." Washington Post, Michael Andor Brodeur

The Still symphony’s generally relaxed tone made it a genial companion piece to Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony (“Pastoral”), which proved the high point so far in Noseda’s traversal of the composer’s orchestral works. With the string sections trimmed back to just under forty players, Noseda led a carefully contained interpretation of this most peaceful of Beethoven’s symphonies, putting the spotlight on the storm scene in the fourth movement.
(...) The conductor kept the brook scene of the second movement placid in feeling, with a stately tempo, emphasizing the water’s motion in the articulation of murmuring inner parts. The little closing vignette with the three birds delighted, a cadenza heard twice from the flute (nightingale), oboe (quail), and two clarinets (cuckoo). Noseda pushed the tempo only in the third movement’s peasant dance scene, but the NSO’s oboe, clarinet, and horn principals all took this spritely pace easily in stride. Washington Classical Review, Charles T. Downey

Gianandrea Noseda’s Beethoven cycle with the National Symphony Orchestra came to its expected conclusion Thursday night: a standing ovation preceded by a rapid, aggressive Ninth Symphony. Tickets for all three performances were all snapped up, the first time that has happened for the NSO since Stephen Hough sold out the Concert Hall in March.(...) The Italian conductor had a couple surprises in store for this final installment of his “Beethoven-plus” series of concerts, begun last year and spread out over two seasons. (...)Noseda’s interpretation of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony meshed with previous performances of most of the others in the cycle. The high-octane approach worked best in the first two movements. Noseda heightened the mysterious tensions of the first movement by going heavy on the brass and timpani. The crisp tempo pointed out similarities to the damnation scene in Don Giovanni, and the coda had the feel of a little funeral march. Washington Classical Review, Charles T. Downey

It was an evening of epic proportions on Saturday night at the Kennedy Center, as the National Symphony Orchestra sounded the final triumphant bars of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor — to the most roaring reception I’ve ever heard in the hall. In doing so, maestro Gianandrea Noseda also closed the final chapter of the NSO’s ambitious 1½-year celebration of “Beethoven & American Masters,” a festival that reimagined what could have been a run-of-the-mill Beethoven cycle with well-selected symphonic works by William Grant Still and a survey of George Walker’s five deceptively titanic sinfonias. (...) Noseda’s were spotless. One highlight of the maestro’s treatment of Beethoven throughout this festival has been his detailed restoration of the composer’s humanity — a facet of Ludwig often lost in the overstuffed lore of genius. As a composer, as a man, as a body on earth, Beethoven was perhaps never more human than when he composed the Ninth, between 1822 and 1824, and throughout Saturday’s account, Noseda saw to it that the orchestra didn’t play this monument as a monolith — not so much taking orders from the music as drawing breath. (...) Noseda’s guidance relies on carefully managed dynamics and wayfinding accents, and he masterfully mapped the movement without flattening it. Washington Post, Michael Andor Brodeur

“I’ve heard and witnessed my share of some of the greatest conductors of the past 60 years or so, from Bernstein, von Karajan, Solti, Davis, Barenboim, and the crippled in more ways than one, Levine. It is my opinion, joining with the most discerning musical judges worldwide, that Gianandrea Noseda deserves such a ranking. Hé’s meticulous as he is of boundless energy and this home orchestra, the oldest of our nation, played for him with unmistakable respect and ardor. All of which was reflected by the audience’s unbridled affection. My concert companion and I were most fortunate to attend, hear, observe, and rejoice in the now acoustically renown David Geffen Hall! “ Splash Magazines, Charles E. Gerber

Washington Post: At Carnegie Hall, a road-ready NSO delivers a show of sonic force Joined by Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov, the orchestra thrilled a full house with a program of Walker, Prokofiev and Stravinsky Noseda extracted rich color from its catastrophic blasts of horns and climbing strings, and ably guided the orchestra through its constantly shifting terrain — a stretch of long, luminous calm; a furtively plodding passage flecked with percussive punctuation; the mounting cataclysm of its close. Walker’s work has become a unique lens through which to hear Noseda’s NSO — each Sinfonia a test of the orchestra’s agility and sensitivity. … If the rapturous audience reception was any indication, rumors of the NSO’s rise among American orchestras have not been overstated. The orchestra feels fully charged and road-ready for its fast approaching first European tour under Noseda next February. But more importantly, the NSO has never seemed more settled into itself, never sounded more sound.

New York Classic Review: Trifonov’s existential Prokofiev with National Symphony transcends time and genre This past winter and so far this spring there have been several fantastic orchestral performances in Carnegie- Hall. To that add Tuesday night’s concert from the National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Gianandrea Noseda. … Trifonov was supported by superb playing from the orchestra and uncanny integration, via Noseda, not just coordinated in time but in expressive purpose.

New York Times: Symphony Spotlights Forward Thinkers Gianandrea Noseda led his Washington ensemble at Carnegie Hall in a trio of works by George Walker, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. The National Symphony Orchestra, in the days leading to its Carnegie Hall appearance on Tuesday, launched a charm offensive in the press. This ensemble from Washington revealed that its music director, Gianandrea Noseda, had been anonymously lending seven Italian-made violins and one viola, reportedly collectively valued at some $5 million, to players in the orchestra. Until very recently, the musicians did not know who their benefactor was until — ta-da! — Noseda stepped forward. The orchestra may see those Noseda-owned instruments as a kind of secret sauce, but on Tuesday it was the total flavor — a mix of honey and heat — that was truly satisfying.

Musical America: Noseda and the NSO Probe Russia's Finest By George Loomis, Musical America April 21, 2023 the National Symphony Orchestra led by Music Director Gianandrea Noseda appeared in Carnegie Hall with two mammoth Russian works in tow, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and the complete score of Stravinsky’s 1910 ballet The Firebird. It was their first appearance in New York since 2019, when they performed Act 2 of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in David Geffen Hall. If that event reflected Noseda’s skill as an opera conductor—since 2021 he has been general music director of the Zurich Opera House, where a new production of Wagner’s Ring cycle is currently in the works—this one one drew on his affinity for Russian music, furthered by his long association, including as a principal guest conductor, with the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.

His players were fully up to the task, among them several who had vivid solo moments, including Sue Heineman (bassoon) and Abel Pereira (horn). Much has been made of the orchestra’s improved string sound during Noseda’s six years at the helm, and recently it was revealed that eight instruments by vintage Italian makers, now part of Noseda’s personal collection, are in the players’ hands. Whatever the effect they may or may not have, the orchestra’s rich string sonority served this music well. Add in the intensity Noseda brought to the performance and his feeling for drama at moments like the approach to the final tableau, when he reduced the strings to a whisper before the glorious horn solo, and the result was a performance of true Russianness.

«If the National Symphony Orchestra succeeds in its goal of being considered a world-leading orchestra, its performances this week of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony no. 5 may be remembered as a key milestone toward that achievement. Under the baton of music director Gianandrea Noseda, the NSO brilliantly navigated the hour-plus-long challenge of pulling out the sometimes excessive-sounding details of the work and making each of them count, in glorious balance against the main themes and moods of the five-movement work. Some of the past challenges of the orchestra – sketchy brass, lagging strings, underpowered motivation – were nowhere in evidence at the first performance of the Mahler Fifth on Thursday evening. (…)
While the brass section as a whole was appropriately blaring through a great deal of the opening Funeral March and the tumultuous second movement, each move proceeded with clarity. (…)
The second movement was a riot of turbulent gestures, but the “great vehemence” of part of Mahler’s tempo instruction never got in the way of the details. The third movement Scherzo with its pastoral Ländler featured complete solidity from the entire horn section led by principal horn Abel Pereira against appropriately savory strings. The program notes aptly stated that the second of the two Trios in the movement presents the principal horn as “protagonist, evoking an untouched Alpine vastness”.
Noseda and the NSO provided the Adagietto with a beautiful shape without dragging. The melody has a way of turning sour in parallel drops of the melody and harmony – almost like a simultaneous going-out-of-tune, except it’s what’s written. But because Noseda had not allowed the proceedings to become too treacly, there was no sense of aimlessness. A harp figure accompanying the strings later in the movement did not come across as a solo but as more of an interstitial effect.
Noseda chose the Rondo finale to provide one of his signature supercharged tempi. In the hands of a lesser ensemble, that would threaten to make the movement’s fugal sections collapse in a heap, but the counterpoint read as perfectly clear out in the hall. The movement, and thus the entire symphony, has a quixotic ending starting with almost a joke of downward roller-coaster figure, but that leads to a positive ending that cleanses all the world-weariness before it. Noseda had the orchestra galloping toward the finish line to emphasize the effect.
Throughout the work, Noseda himself appeared to have relaxed just a bit into his role as the titular head of the NSO, with less of an Olympic-record vertical movement to his gestures and more confidence in sideways indications. One senses that Noseda’s greater confidence in his brass section in particular has led to this further ease of movement from the podium.
Noseda opened the concert with the two movements of Franz Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony. The dark tone of the opening movement was immediately evident. Principals shone in the second movement, primarily on clarinet and oboe. The balance between the strings and brass in the minor-key episodes between the melodic material in the second and final movement was as fine as the NSO has recently achieved.»
Bachtrack, David Rohde

«The espresso-intense buzz of Gianandrea Noseda’s tenure was palpable in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall Saturday night, as the Italian conductor opened his third season as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra. (…) From the critic’s perspective, one of the best features of the Noseda era is that the programming of these inaugural galas so far has not been merely tolerable but consistently alluring. (…) By the end, it was clear that Noseda had accomplished a mini-marvel, a jazz-inspired program easy on the ears but also of considerable musicological value.»
Washington Classical Review, Charles T. Downey

«For all of the evening’s actual performances, Noseda displayed lightness on his feet, literally, swaying with his hips to Bernstein’s dance tunes in his “Divertimento for Orchestra,” or leaning insouciantly against the railing of his podium during Shostakovich’s utterly beguiling “Suite for Jazz Orchestra.” The NSO is in the best place it’s been in for years, and you can’t always tell on paper just how far the orchestra has come. When you put Bernstein and Gershwin (“An American in Paris”) on an opening-night program, you might expect you were getting business as usual. But in practice, this program managed to be at once unfamiliar and invigorating and as purely entertaining and light as you could wish for on an evening that’s supposed to be more festive than earnest. (…) Most importantly, perhaps, the evening felt more genuine than the norm, without the striving to be something or take a stand that has been evident at some past opening-night galas. It felt like the start of a good year. Let’s hope it is one.»
The Washington Post, Anne Midgette

«Applausi e standing ovation per l'insolito ma apprezzato programma di natura jazz con cui il maestro Gianandrea Noseda ha inaugurato la sua terza stagione come direttore musicale della National Symphony Orchestra (NSO). (…) Il nuovo presidente del board della NSO, Ronald Abramson, che ha elogiato l'ascesa dell' orchestra sotto la direzione di Noseda - compresa l'assunzione di sedici nuovi musicisti - e ricordato le tournee del prossimo anno in Cina e in Giappone.»
ANSA, Claudio Salvalaggio

«There were so many cars at Wolf Trap on Friday night that I briefly wondered whether I had come to the wrong concert. But it was indeed the National Symphony Orchestra, offering its one straight classical program in a Wolf Trap season that runs mainly to pops concerts and live film accompaniment — and it was playing with its own music director, Gianandrea Noseda, to boot. As an onlooker, it’s hard to tell what draws audiences to a particular event — Noseda’s presence; Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony; or the fact that there are so few NSO classical concerts at Wolf Trap this summer — but something, at least, got people out in force. (…) Noseda loves to perform in different venues, and he has a knack for communication. He picked up the microphone and said a few words about how excited he was to be there for the first time, and what a gift it was for all the musicians to perform such great music. And then he turned around, picked up the baton and sounded as if he really meant it. (…) Noseda has a particular way with Beethoven: fresh and helium-light and so fleet that the strings almost floated offstage in the headlong blink-and-you’ll-miss-it passagework of the trio section of the third-movement scherzo. Because he and the orchestra will be performing and recording the complete symphonies at the end of the upcoming season, their contribution to 2020’s 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, it was nice to hear this performance sounding so assured, with enough visceral energy to counterbalance the speed and keep the whole thing grounded on Earth after all.»
The Washington Post, Anne Midgette

«The event marked music director Gianandrea Noseda’s belated Wolf Trap debut. (…) Next season Noseda will lead a Beethoven festival with the NSO, performing all nine of the composer’s symphonies in the space of three weeks. He gave a taste of what to expect with this rendition of the Fifth Symphony, already heard at the Kennedy Center in April. His tempo for the first movement was so brisk and brash that the famous unison opening went by in a flash. (…)Beginning with the hushed tension of the transition from the third movement, the Finale was packed with energy, and the trumpets rang out heroically in the triumphant climaxes. The orchestral enthusiasm could not be dampened, even by that unexpected return of the sneaky Scherzo music.»
Washington Classical Review, Charles T. Downey

«Noseda made it especially malleable, softening to lissome pianissimi before whipping up the orchestra into energetic frenzies. A woman in front of me was dancing along in her seat. Who cares where the music is from when Noseda knows how it goes — and keeps us coming back for more?»
The Washington Post, Anne Midgette

«Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony (“From the New World”) capped off the program aptly, an evocation of the country the composer visited, complete with allusions to the folk and popular music he heard here. Noseda’s interpretation of this familiar piece, last heard from the NSO under Krzysztof Urbański in 2016, was exceptional. In the opening Adagio section of the first movement, he carefully pondered each gloomy phrase and color, making the explosion of the Allegro section more electric.»
Washington Classical Review, Charles T. Downey

«Perhaps the most distinctive feature of Thursday’s NSO concert was the quality of the playing, which was here at least as good as it had been all season: generally quite robust, unified, and agile. The familiarity of repertoire (the majority of it, at least) could not have hurt. One sensed that Noseda was trying to emphasize the Continental sophistication and refinement that lies alongside the more rustic American folk elements of the score, and the results were compelling.»
ConcertoNet.com, Samuel Wigutow

«The program was French; the accent was Italian. Gianandrea Noseda is continuing to show Washington, and the National Symphony Orchestra, what he and they can do together. Thursday night — two days after the orchestra surprised him with a serenade for his 55th birthday — saw Noseda in avuncular mode, offering a chatty introduction to a program of three pieces that showed a narrow slice of French chronology and a broad spectrum of orchestral color. Then he turned around and let loose at and with the orchestra (…) Noseda is the soul of urbanity, and yet there was a rawness to his approach. This program was French, but it was never refined or precious or merely sweet according to the tendencies of French musical stereotype. The Saint-Saëns was colored by the rough punch of cymbals, the cry of trombones, the jabbing of violin bows as the instruments seemed to pant together for breath. He was waking up the music, and the audience, who responded with enthusiastic applause.»
The Washington Post, Anne Midgette

«The South Korean pianist has worked with NSO music director Gianandrea Noseda in a number of concerts abroad as well as on a recording of music by Chopin. Their collaboration Thursday night reflected both familiarity and confidence in each other. There are long stretches in this concerto where the piano functions as part of the orchestral texture, adding a gently percussive edge to even quiet passages. Cho never tried to play over the orchestra, trusting Noseda to find the right orchestral weight. (…) On the heels of Franck’s Gothic darkness and Ravel’s jazz-like cool, Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 (“Organ”), which ended the evening, seemed a throw-back to the comforts of Romantic music without a message. Noseda paced things carefully, allowing ripples of tension to accumulate but never sounding premeditated, building an air of suspense that suffused the whole performance. The occasional majestic interjection of hymn-like organ chords served to calm things down when the music got a little over-excited.»
Washington Classical Review, Joan Reinthaler

«Without waiting for the applause to stop, Noseda grasped the baton and plunged into the first movement, so fleet and intense that its fury left the room breathless. Noseda’s musicians were with him every step of the way throughout this no-holds-barred music-making, maintaining poise, precision and refinement. Beethoven spoke urgently of ideals toward which humanity must continue to aspire, and to Thursday’s politically weary audience, this performance was a reminder why this is one of the most enduring pieces ever written.»
The Washington Post, Patrick Rucker

«When was the last time you were truly blown away by a performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony? Gianandrea Noseda and the National Symphony Orchestra unleashed an urgent, explosive yet meticulously detailed performance at the Kennedy Center on Thursday night that did just that. The Beethoven closed a program that began with music of Schoenberg and Brahms. With a little bit of stage drama, Noseda came on stage after intermission, took a perfunctory bow, whipped around, punching the down-beat as he turned, and they were off. What followed was serious, exhilarating and sometimes surprising. (…) Between the Schoenberg and the Beethoven, not so much a bridge as a cushion, was a lush and colorful reading of Brahms Variations on a Theme by Haydn. Noseda focused on contrasts of mood here, the mistiness of the first variation, the careful balance of interweaving melodies in the fourth and the blaze of sunlight as the music shifts from minor to major in the majestic final passacaglia.»
Washington Classical Review, Joan Reinthaler

“It’s nice when a concert feels like an event: the crowded hall, the sense of anticipation. It’s also nice when it lives up to its promise. (…) Beethoven is something of a calling card for Noseda, who gained his first burst of sustained international attention with a BBC Philharmonic recording of the symphony cycle that set records for downloads at the time. On Thursday, he showed the restraint and fluidity of his best work, an instinct for lightness and crispness that the orchestra more or less followed, more or less dutifully. What woke it up, it turned out, was not Trifonov, but Dmitri Shostakovich. Although many years have passed since Mstislav Rostropovich recorded Shostakovich symphonies with the NSO, some of his passion for this repertoire remains in the group’s genetic code, and Noseda, whose first major post was a long-term training session as principal guest conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre under Valery Gergiev, is equally on home turf.” (The Washington Post, Anne Midgette)

“Gianandrea Noseda achieved a high point with this week’s concerts from the National Symphony Orchestra. The program seems unprepossessing on the surface, combining Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 and Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony. What brought it together so beautifully was a fiery Russian edge, in the soloist, Daniil Trifonov, and the conducting, which recalled Noseda’s journeyman days at the Mariinsky Theater. (…)Noseda and the NSO lit into Shostakovich’s pithy, varied Sixth Symphony with inexhaustible energy. The three movements offer surprise after surprise–Noseda wanted a seething approach in the opening Largo, part bitter lamentation and part transcendent paean. He got it, with a molten introduction in the violas and cellos matched by searing violins. The many exposed, eclectic solos for piccolo, English horn, silvery low flutes, and bass clarinet were all outstanding. One passage sparkled with particular magic, as tense string tremolos were joined by a whisper of celesta, over which the horns were suspended. (Washington Classical Review, Charles T. Downey)