Gianandrea Noseda pushed the NSO to the peak of its powers with Schnittke and Shostakovich

Thursday’s performance was, quite simply, one of the best I’ve ever seen this orchestra give: a dazzling show of force shaped by inspired restraint, and yet more evidence of the NSO’s mounting powers under Noseda. If you were among the absentee, do your best to make the repeat on Saturday. Noseda introduced Batiashvili, whom he once led in a performance of Beethoven’s violin concerto, including an action-packed first movement cadenza composed by Schnittke in 1977. After the concert, the violinist expressed to Noseda her desire to someday perform Schnittke’s own violin concerto. “And here we are,” Noseda said from the stage. [...] With a fully invested and physical performance, Noseda sharpened the edges of the symphony’s hour, playing up its little provocations, and capitalizing on the way Shostakovich pits the orchestra against itself: Sometimes whole sections seem to vie for power, other times the whole spread falls into line at the blink of an eye. Little committees break off into secretive chamber discussions and come swinging back to the fray. Just when a plan seems to form, it’s undermined or interrupted. Things get personal: a horn mocks a tuba, a harp mimics a pizzicato violin, a waltz seems to sneer at itself.

There’s a hideous majesty to the thing, and Noseda was uniquely locked in — especially in its comparatively tiny centerpiece “Moderato con moto.” [...] The symphony’s gorgeous finish, with its despondent calls of horn, was flecked with winks of celesta and taps of timpani over a parting pulse of bass. One of the loveliest things I’ve heard the NSO do. Noseda held the silence in his hand for a while at the end. How long can a wow moment possibly last? Michael Andor Brodeur, The Washington Post