Gianandrea Noseda takes us on a tour of Italy, as he leads the National Symphony Orchestra in two works by Ottorino Respighi: The Fountains of Rome and Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No.2. The second half of the program features Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the University of Maryland Concert Chorus and soloists.
Show Notes
Music
- Ottorino Respighi: Fountains of Rome
- Ottorino Respighi: Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No.2
- Gioachino Rossini: Stabat Mater
Reflections by Nicole Lacroix
2020 was to be the year of my Italian vacation. I prepared by taking language lessons and immersing myself in Italian culture. Since my travel plans were disrupted by the pandemic, I’m looking forward with great pleasure to April’s NSO Showcase, “Unexpected Italy,” with the inimitable Gianandrea Noseda as our guide, presenting music recorded on three different occasions in 2019.
Our first stop is Ottorino Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No.2 (the first performance of this work by the National Symphony Orchestra). Maestro Noseda then leads the orchestra in Respighi’s breakout work, Fontane di Roma, a dawn-to-dusk musical journey through the rich history and natural beauty of Rome, as seen from its majestic fountains. The program ends with a different kind of musical edifice—Rossini's Stabat Mater—a cathedral in sound painstakingly written over a period of ten years by a composer usually known for the breakneck speed of his output. By his retirement from the stage at age 37, Rossini had authored 39 operas.
In April, 2019, Maestro Noseda led the National Symphony Orchestra and the University of Maryland Concert Chorus and soloists in a Kennedy Center concert that “enraptured” the audience (Washington Post). They then took the show to New York’s Carnegie Hall, for a performance the New York Times called “exhilarating” and “magnificent.”