“First and foremost,” the Kennedy Center’s 2020-2021 season “marks the 90th anniversary of the founding of the National Symphony Orchestra,” writes Charles T. Downey in Tuesday’s (2/11) Washington Classical Review. “The ensemble has planned some memorable music and exciting new programs for its fourth season under the leadership of music director Gianandrea Noseda. The NSO will launch a new annual artist residency called Prism, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, incoming music director of the San Francisco Symphony, will be the first invited artist. He will lead two subscription concerts in the fall, featuring his own Karawane … and the world premiere of his new work FOG…. More new music comes to the NSO in a season-long series of concerts devoted to living composers … [with] world premieres … by Peter Boyer, Michael Daugherty, Jessie Montgomery, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, and the D.C. premiere of a co-commissioned piece by Julia Wolfe. The theme–‘Pivotal Moments, Powerful Voices’–aims to showcase the social and historical relevance of music…. Next season gets yet more Beethoven tributes, including a performance of the mammoth Missa Solemnis…. The NSO and Noseda will return to Carnegie Hall in March 2021. That program highlights music by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Casella, all composers who wrote during times of tyranny.”
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