Review Roundup: Gianandrea Noseda Returns to the United States to Conduct in New York

Maestro Gianandrea Noseda returns to the United States this month through early December to conduct a wide range of programs from Dallapiccola to Beethoven and Gershwin to Britten beginning with his first series of subscription weeks as the new Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra. In between concerts at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Noseda returns to the New York Philharmonic for the first time since 2006, leading the orchestra in a program that will include Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 3.

In January 2016, Noseda was named the seventh Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra. He inaugurated his four-year tenure with a critically acclaimed season opening gala celebrating the Leonard Bernstein centennial on September 24, 2017; that concert is still available on replay at medici.tv.

Noseda's first subscription weeks with the National Symphony Orchestra begin on November 9 and continue through early December. The first subscription program, November 9 - 11, features Webern's Passacaglia and Dallapiccola's Partita with soprano Corinne Winters, and concludes with Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony. The following week, November 16 - 19, Noseda explores a diverse program that includes Gershwin's An American in Paris, Respighi's Fountains of Rome, Chausson's Poème, Op. 25 with concertmaster Nurit Bar-Josef, and de Falla's The Three-Cornered Hat, Suites No. 1 & 2.

Following the second subscription week in Washington, D.C., Noseda will make a long-awaited return to the New York Philharmonic, where he last appeared as a guest conductor in 2006. From November 22 to November 25, Noseda will conduct four concerts of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh Suite, Saint-Saëns' Violin Concerto No. 3 with soloist Frank Huang, and Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 3.

From November 30 to December 2, Noseda concludes his fall residency with the National Symphony Orchestra in three performances of Britten's Matinées musicales after Rossini, Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, and Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 5 in G major, Op. 55 with pianist Yuja Wang.

In-demand internationally as one of the world's eminent conductors, Noseda's 2017/2018 season also includes return appearances with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, and the London Symphony Orchestra both in London and on tour in the Far East.

Let's see what the critics have to say!

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James R. Oestreich, NY Times: There was reason to applaud. The "Kitezh" suite is an odd succession of movements (assembled by Rimsky's pupil Maximilian Steinberg), full of the color and imagination you would expect from a brilliant orchestrator exploring exotic terrain. From the strings' hushed hymn to nature at the opening, through invasion and battle music, to a glittering apotheosis, complete with bells, chimes and cymbals, Mr. Noseda drew polished playing through the full dynamic spectrum.

David Wright, NY Classical Review: The Philharmonic's concertmaster, Frank Huang, seemed miscast in the Sarasate role on Wednesday. The Spanish violinist, by all accounts, was among the most fiery and seductive players the instrument has ever seen. If those traits are part of Huang's musical personality, he left them in his violin case Wednesday night. His earnest, proficient performance evoked not so much the charismatic virtuoso as the hardest-working kid in the conservatory.

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