“Noseda’s Third [Beethoven Symphony] was a charm, deferential to the symphony's deliberate designs but deliberate enough to enhance its details in high resolution, polish its surface, restore its gleam. – The Washington Post
(WASHINGTON)—The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) and Music Director Gianandrea Noseda will release the first installment of their complete Beethoven symphony cycle, a recording of Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3. The album will be released digitally on Friday, September 16, 2022, and will be available to pre-order from Friday, August 19, 2022.
The installments of digital releases on NSO’s label will culminate in a box set, which will be available in 2024 on SACD with stereo and HD 5.0 surround sound.
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About the performances
In the 2021–2022 season,Music Director Gianandrea Noseda led the National Symphony Orchestra in performances of Beethoven’s symphonies 1, 3, 4, and 5. Next season, the NSO will complete its Beethoven cycle with performances of the remainder of Beethoven’s nine symphonies in May and June 2023. This initial release of the NSO’s performances of Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 was recorded live in January 2022 at the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall.
Gianandrea Noseda on the first installment of the NSO’s Beethoven Cycle:
“Anytime I approach a new cycle of Beethoven Symphonies, it is a major challenge. Beethoven’s power can be a shadow or a light that embraces all of the centuries. His music has freshness and strength, and an openness that never stops to shock, attract, and overwhelm me. The artists of the National Symphony Orchestra reflect this in their performances. Listeners will experience the bold statement of Symphony No. 1 and the bolder statement that is Symphony No. 3. Both are immense works and herald the beginning of our journey to climb this musical Everest.”
The complete Beethoven Symphonies continue the legacy of the NSO’s rich recording history, which began in the 1940s. In recent NSO history the orchestra released two recordings on its new label, starting in 2020 with a pairing of Copland’s Suite fromBilly the Kid and DvoÅ™ák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World. The second album, George Walker’s Sinfonia No. 4, was the first of the NSO’s complete collection of George Walker’s Sinfonias and was released in June 2022.
About the artwork
Mo Willems, the inaugural Kennedy Center Artist-in-Residence, is an author, illustrator, animator, and playwright. He collaborates on projects ranging from classical music, opera, comedy, dance, and painting to digital works with the National Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda, Ben Folds, Yo-Yo Ma, and others.
Inspired by a concert of Beethoven’s works, Willems created nine pieces of art as visual responses to each of the nine symphonies. These vibrant artworks became the focal imagery on the NSO’s Beethoven albums.
“The idea of creating art specifically to view while listening to Beethoven’s symphonies, compelled me to spend a year researching, listening, and painting. The result is nine abstractions, a visual art piece for each symphony, rendered in panels, whose sizes represent the lengths of each movement. Through this project, I got to know Beethoven in a new way.” — Mo Willems
Release schedule
The National Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Gianandrea Noseda will launch their cycle of Beethoven recordings with Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 on Friday, September 16, 2022. The album will be available to pre-order on Friday, August 19, 2022.
The remaining symphonies will be released as digital albums, continuing with Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 in spring 2023. At the conclusion of the cycle in 2024, a physical box set of all nine symphonies will be made available.
Promotional video
About Gianandrea Noseda
Gianandrea Noseda is one of the world’s most sought-after conductors, equally recognized for his artistry in both the concert hall and opera house. Noseda’s artistic leadership has inspired the NSO and led to greater engagement with the community, concerts streamed internationally, and rave reviews in Washington, D.C. and at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in 2019. Their artistic partnership continued to flourish with the launch in 2019 of a new NSO recording label distributed by LSO Live for which Noseda also records as principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.
The 2021–2022 season saw Noseda begin his tenure as General Music Director of the Zurich Opera House where the centerpiece of his time there will be a new production of Wagner’s “Ring” Cycle.
Noseda has conducted the most important orchestras and at the leading opera houses and festivals including the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Edinburgh Festival, La Scala, Munich Philharmonic, Met Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Royal Opera House (UK), Salzburg Festival, Verbier Festival, Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna State Opera, and Vienna Symphony.
From 2007 until 2018, Noseda served as Music Director of Italy’s Teatro Regio Torino where he ushered in a transformative era for the company matched with international acclaim for its productions, tours, recordings, and film projects. His leadership resulted in a golden era for this opera house. Other institutions where he has had significant roles include the BBC Philharmonic, which he led from 2002–2011; Principal Guest Conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra from 2011–2020; the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where the Victor de Sabata Chair was created for him as principal guest conductor from 2010–2014; and the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, which appointed him its first-ever foreign principal guest conductor in 1997, a position he held for a decade. He served as Artistic Director of the Stresa Festival from 2000–2020. He was also Principal Guest Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic from 1999 to 2003; Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI from 2003 to 2006; and Principal Conductor of the Cadaqués Orchestra from 1994 to 2020.
Noseda’s intense recording activity counts more than 70 CDs, many of which have been celebrated by critics and received awards.
Gianandrea Noseda’s cherished relationship with the Metropolitan Opera dates back to 2002. At the Met he has conducted 13 operas and nearly 100 performances mainly new productions. Many of his critically acclaimed performances have been broadcast on radio, Met Live in HD, and released as DVDs.
A native of Milan, Noseda is Commendatore al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, marking his contribution to the artistic life of Italy. He has been honored as Musical America’s Conductor of the Year (2015) and International Opera Awards Conductor of the Year (2016). In December 2016, he was privileged to conduct the Nobel Prize Concert in Stockholm.
About the National Symphony Orchestra
The 2021–2022 season marks the National Symphony Orchestra’s 90th anniversary, and Gianandrea Noseda’s fifth season as its music director. The Italian conductor serves as the Orchestra’s seventh music director, joining the NSO’s legacy of such distinguished leaders as Christoph Eschenbach, Leonard Slatkin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Antal Doráti, Howard Mitchell, and Hans Kindler. Its artistic leadership also includes Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke and Artistic Advisor Ben Folds.
Since assuming the leadership of the NSO, Gianandrea Noseda has brought a renewed sense of energy and focus to the orchestra, which has resulted in wide-ranging recognition from local, national, and international publications, increases in subscription and single ticket sales, and the expansion of the Orchestra’s reach through live streamed concerts and recordings. The New York Times called the NSO and Noseda’s 2019 Carnegie Hall appearance “spectacular,” while the Washington Post wrote that “There’s a certain flair going on at the National Symphony Orchestra,” consistently reinforcing that this artistic partnership continues to gain momentum. 2019 also marked Gianandrea Noseda’s first recording with the NSO of DvoÅ™ák’s Symphony No. 9 and Copland’s Billy the Kid, released in 2019 on the NSO’s new label, distributed by LSO Live.
Founded in 1931, the Orchestra has always been committed to artistic excellence and music education. In 1986, the National Symphony became an artistic affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where it has performed a full season of subscription concerts since the Center opened in 1971. The 96-member NSO regularly participates in events of national and international importance, including official holiday celebrations through its regularly televised appearances on PBS on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol for Capital Concerts, live-streamed performances from the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on medici.tv, and local radio broadcasts on Classical WETA 90.9FM, making the NSO one of the most-heard orchestras in the country.
Additionally, the NSO’s community engagement projects are nationally recognized, including NSO In Your Neighborhood, an annual week of approximately 50 performances in schools, churches, community centers, and other unexpected venues; Notes of Honor, which offers free performances for active, veteran, prior service, and retired members of the military and their families; and Sound Health, a collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its affiliated organizations. Career development opportunities for young musicians include the NSO Youth Fellowship Program and its acclaimed, tuition-free Summer Music Institute.
The National Symphony Orchestra label was launched in 2020 and saw its first release, DvoÅ™àk’s Symphony No. 9, debut at number 4 in the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart. Recordings on the NSO label are released in collaboration with LSO Live and distributed physically in the U.S., U.K., France, and Benelux by [PIAS], who also handle worldwide digital distribution. For a full list of distributors, please visit: www.lsolive.co.uk/distribution.
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Press Contacts
Jen Luzzo
Director of PR (Classical), The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
[email protected] | +1 201 572 9364
Lawrence Perelman
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Global PR and Communications for Gianandrea Noseda
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Katy Rogers-Davies
LSO Live Marketing & Partnerships Manager, London Symphony Orchestra
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