National Symphony Orchestra, Kennedy Center Essentials

Since its formation in 1931, the National Symphony Orchestra has cultivated trademark qualities of pinpoint accuracy, tonal brilliance, and irresistible virtuosity. Listen to the joy its players bring to the “Scherzo” of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 “From the New World,” encouraged by Gianandrea Noseda, the orchestra’s music director, and their refined artistry in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Marvel, too, at the vivid colours they extract from Sinfonia No. 5 “Visions” by George Walker, the first African-American recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, or the haunting beauty of “Misterioso” from Joseph Schwanter’s Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra. The NSO’s adventurous programming, a feature of its work at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., has opened doors to genre-crossing collaborations and, in recent years, a fruitful relationship with Carlos Simon, Kennedy Center composer-in-residence. Simon’s The Block provides a thrilling overture to a playlist rich in contrasts and, in the case of tracks by Elgar, Handel, Shostakovich, and Johann Strauss II, delectable treasures from this magnificent orchestra’s deep archives.