Gianandrea Noseda conducts Bernstein

To mark both the opening of their 2017/2018 season and the inauguration of Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda as their new Music Director, the National Symphony Orchestra presents a concert in honor of the upcoming 100th anniversary of American composer, conductor, educator, cultural ambassador, and humanitarian Leonard Bernstein's birth on August 25, 1918. The appropriately festive concert program features a collection of some of Bernstein's most beloved works.

First comes the scintillating Overture to Bernstein's 1956 comic operetta Candide, whose bold fanfare and enchanting interwoven showtunes have transported the overture into the orchestral repertoire. After selected vocal works by the composer featuring the talented Cynthia Erivo, Yo-Yo Ma joins the orchestra for Three Meditations from MASS, Bernstein's orchestral arrangement with a prominent solo cello role of selections from MASS, the composer's innovative music-theater work written for the 1971 opening of the Kennedy Center. The concert closes with Bernstein's beloved Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, which tie together individual episodes from the original musical into one compelling and majestic work.