Prokofiev’s Symphony No 3 is dedicated to Myaskovsky and first performed by the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris on 17 May 1929. It is one of Prokofiev’s most intense works, unleashing a barrage of confrontational energy that carries with it as much relentless forward momentum as pulverising anxiety. ‘I had never before felt anything similar when listening to music,’ remarked Prokofiev’s colleague, the pianist Sviatoslav Richter, on hearing the piece; ‘it felt to me like an apocalypse’.

Carlos Simon’s contract extension comes as the National Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Music Director Gianandrea Noseda, announces the release of its next recording, an album of Four Symphonic Works by Carlos Simon recorded live and released on the NSO’s label. The album will include Tales—A Folklore Symphony, The Block, Songs of Separation, and Wake Up! Concerto for Orchestra. The first EP, Tales—A Folklore Symphony, will be available January 26.

This remarkable vocal album, which won the prestigious Amadeus Music Award in 2003, features soprano Anna Netrbko in stunning renditions of works by Puccini, Berlioz, Mozart, Bellini, and Dvorák among others. A multiple Grammy-nominee and the first opera singer ever to be named to the TIME 100 list (Time magazine’s list of the most influential people in the world), Netrebko takes on these masterworks with startling vivacity and vocal virtuosity.

The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) and Music Director Gianandrea Noseda will release Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 2 & 7 on December 1, 2023, available for pre-order on November 17. The release is the penultimate installment of a complete cycle of Beethoven symphonies on the National Symphony Orchestra label.

For the first recording on its own label, the Washington, D.C.-based National Symphony Orchestra turns to two heroes of American music. While in New York at the start of the 20th century, Czech composer Dvořák fell in love with indigenous folk tunes, incorporating them into arguably America’s first symphony.

Prokofiev sends an urgent musical bulletin from Stalin’s Russia with his Symphony No. 5—music of iron and steel, forged in a time of war and tyranny.

The National Symphony Orchestra looks forward to releasing Beethoven’s remaining symphonies over the course of 2023 and 2024. The cover designs for this cycle feature the work of Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence Mo Willems. Inspired by the genius of Ludwig van Beethoven, Willems created a series of large-scale abstractions influenced by each of the composer’s nine symphonies.

The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) will release an album of George Walker’s five sinfonias, conducted by Music Director Gianandrea Noseda, on September 8, 2023. The recording project celebrates NSO’s connection to Walker—the first African American composer to receive a Pulitzer Prize and a D.C. native—and honors his centennial, which was in 2022.

Two symphonies from Beethoven's so-called 'Heroic' period—No 4 completed in 1806 and the supremely defiant No 5 begun in the same year and completed two years later.

In this recital of 19th century Italian arias Damrau proves that precision, refinement and controlled intensity of expression – the guiding principles of bel canto (literally, beautiful singing) – apply not only to Bellini and Donizetti, but also in the more explicit passions of their successors, Verdi, Puccini and Leoncavallo. Performing with the Orchestra of the Teatro Regio Torino under Maestro Gianandrea Noseda, and featuring as guests artists Nicolas Testé (Diana Damrau’s husband), Nicole Brandolino and Piotr Beczała, this album sits between two releases of complete recordings of works at the centre of the bel canto canon – Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor (November 2014) and Verdi’s La Traviata (Autumn 2015).

Gianandrea Noseda is widely recognized as one of the Leading conductors of his generation. He is Musical America's 2015 Conductor of the Year. On "Scheherazade" by Nikolaj Rimsky-Korsakov, Noseda proves as sensitive playwright who manages to still have energy for the next highlight in store at all dramatic outbursts of sumptuous work, and easily take back to the quiet and introspective moments sound violence and mood - and the handset so inevitably to captivate. The lush occupied Orchestra (all in triplicate occupied woodwinds, strings, twelve brass and a gigantic array on percussion instruments) have been adopted in this recording from 2015 with the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Teatro Regio Torino. Giulio Cesare Ricci took this magnificent interpretation purely analog in Teatro Regio with the unbeatable Neumann tube microphones on - no better way to hear this! A real must-have.

Gianandrea Noseda is widely recognized as one of the Leading conductors of his generation. He is Musical America's 2015 Conductor of the Year. On "Scheherazade" by Nikolaj Rimsky-Korsakov, Noseda proves as sensitive playwright who manages to still have energy for the next highlight in store at all dramatic outbursts of sumptuous work, and easily take back to the quiet and introspective moments sound violence and mood - and the handset so inevitably to captivate. This release (marked as Version 2) is the exact same same orchestra, same conductor, same interpretation and same location as the originally released version. The difference is that in the previous version - the recording has been made with three couples of valve microphones, all ancient and original Neumann U47, U48 and M49. This special edition has been made with only two microphones Neumann U47, capturing more acoustics of the theatre.

Already one of the most anticipated classical albums of 2013, this sumptuous, all-Verdi programme is Anna’s heartfelt birthday tribute to the master of Italian grand opera, with selections from Il Trovatore, Macbeth, I vespri siciliani, Don Carlo and Giovanna d’arco. This is music of emotion, power and extraordinary drama – personally selected and performed by the best-selling soprano of the 21st century. 2013 marks Anna’s ten years as a solo performer, and ten years with Deutsche Grammophon. Netrebko lays claim to the tragic repertoire of Italian grand opera: A decade on from the award-winning Opera Arias, Anna reunites with specialist Verdi conductor Gianandrea Noseda to continue this extraordinary musical journey.

Gianandrea Noseda continues his survey of Italian orchestral music with a disc of works by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, which is the Chandos March Featured Release. Wolf-Ferrari was the son of a German painter and his Italian wife and although acknowledged as an Italian composer, he was perhaps better known in Germany. Wolf-Ferrari achieved his greatest success with a string of operatic works, especially Il segreto di Susanna. The recording includes orchestral excerpts from five operas, together with the Suite-Concertino for bassoon and orchestra.

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.