«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

«(…) the formidable Gianandrea Noseda was at the podium at David Geffen Hall, leading distinguished performances of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto and Schubert’s “Great” Symphony. Mr. Noseda, fresh off his triumphant second season as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra (…). The “Great” nickname has stuck to Schubert’s Ninth (and last) Symphony. But Mr. Noseda led such a lean, clear-textured and impetuously spirited account that the symphony seemed more like Schubert’s most adventurous piece. Even the slow movement, which unfolded with elegance and grace, had a touch of mystery, as Mr. Noseda drew out inner voices and emphasized the sudden shifts of mood.»
The New York Times, Anthony Tommasini

«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)

«That these performances made “Adriana” seem more musically substantial than usual was also thanks to the insightful conducting of Gianandrea Noseda. Cilea emerged during a period in Italian opera, dominated by Puccini, when the public could not get enough of hot-blooded, verismo (essentially true to life) music dramas. When it comes to harmonic daring and subtle manipulations of melodic motifs, Cilea was no Puccini. But without pumping up or milking the music in any way, Mr. Noseda led a vigorous, exacting and pulsing performance, drawing out inner details and lending lightness, with a mordant touch, to the many scenes of backstage bustle and frivolity at the company where Adriana is a star.»
The New York Times, Anthony Tommasini

«The new David McVicar production that opened at the Metropolitan Opera on New Year’s Eve took that legacy seriously and then some: It boasted a stellar quartet of principal singers, a sensitive conductor, and a staging that tried valiantly to infuse the creaky plot with some depth. (…) In the pit, Gianandrea Noseda led a flowing, expressive performance, with the solo violin and harp that accompany the lovers rising ethereally from the orchestration’s alluring, multi-hued texture.»
The Wall Street Journal, Heidi Waleson

«Francesco Cilea’s melodious score, which evokes the 18th century in its own personal way, benefits from a first-rate presence on the podium, Gianandrea Noseda, who conducts as if he truly believes in the work. Sometimes described as sub-Puccini, the opera has understandably seen its reputation rise in recent years. Witnessing a performance of it as good as this is something quite special.»
Financial Times, George Loomis

«Underpinning the evening’s musical strength was Gianandrea Noseda, the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, who continues to burnish his stature as a darling of the international music world. “Adriana” is a walk in the park for Noseda, who is a veteran opera conductor, a native Italian and an old friend and colleague of Netrebko, since they both got their professional starts at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, where he was for 10 years principal guest conductor. Still, he had his hands full keeping her and the rest of the robust ensemble in line with a score that is often intensely busy while remaining centered around a couple of strong themes — the “I am a servant to my art” theme, the “we are SO in love” theme — that keep announcing themselves with soap-opera-like dependability at the emotional high points.»
The Washington Post, Anne Midgette

«The other major artistic benefactor here was conductor Gianandrea Noseda, who shaped the score in ways that even made the opera’s problematically quiet Act IV ending feel extremely effective.»
Classical Voice North America, David Patrick Stearns

«Gianandrea Noseda conducted with characteristic intelligence.»
The Newyorker, Alex Ross