Noseda and the NSO strike the perfect balance with the ‘Beethoven & American Masters’ series

"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