United States Simon, Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff: Ray Chen (violin), National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America / Gianandrea Noseda (conductor). Carnegie Hall, New York, 20.7.2025. (RP)
Carlos Simon – Festive Fanfare and Overture
Mendelssohn – Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64
Rachmaninoff – Symphony No.2 in E minor, Op.2
There are many reasons to escape Manhattan in the summer, but there is a price to be paid: you miss Carnegie Hall’s national youth ensembles in concert. Each summer, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute brings exceptional young musicians from across America to participate in intensive training and performances in New York, as well as to tour around the world. Whatever is wrong in the world is instantly set aright with these young musicians on stage.
Carnegie Hall hosts three youth ensembles – the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, NYO Jazz and NYO2. The former two are for young musicians ages 16 to 19, while the latter is for orchestral musicians ages 14 to 17. All are coached by leading professional musicians and perform on the legendary stage with the world’s greatest conductors and solo performers. For the NYO-USA this summer, they are conductor Gianandrea Noseda and violinist Ray Chen, both of whom will join the orchestra on its upcoming Asian tour with concerts in China, South Korea and Japan, including its first-ever performance in Tokyo.
This concert opened with Carlos Simon’s Festive Fanfare and Overture. If ever a work lives up to its name, this one does with its cascades of brass and percussion and syncopated march-style passages. Simon composed the piece to celebrate Andris Nelson’s tenth anniversary with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the extension of his contract for another five years. Carnegie Hall joined in the commission for the NYO-USA to perform on its 2025 tour.
Festive Fanfare and Overture connects a lot of dots in Simon’s career. It was composed to mark the beginning of his tenure as the inaugural Edmonson Composer Chair with the BSO; he is also the current composer-in-residence at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. Noseda is the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, which plays at the Kennedy Center. The composer came to the stage to acknowledge the applause after this joyous and invigorating performance of Festive Fanfare and Overture, and he received a warm embrace from Noseda.
The appearance of Ray Chen on the stage cemented the celebratory mood inside the hall. He was all smiles as he launched into Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor. There was serious music making to be had, and Chen’s high spirits and bravura playing amplified his artistry and virtuosity. The solo violin dominates the concerto, with the orchestra providing the accompaniment. Under Noseda’s baton, NYO-USA was attentive to mood and balance, and the brilliant sound heard in Festive Fanfare and Overture was replaced with far more subtle dynamic shadings and colors.
Chen captivated the audience with his singing tone, lyricism and the depth of feeling in his interpretation of the first movement’s opening theme. He did the same in the Andante with an exceptional delivery of the tricky section where he simultaneously played the melody alongside the tremolo-filled accompaniment. His virtuosity truly shone in his dazzling yet poetic playing during the cadenzas of the first and third movements. An explosion of applause followed the triumphant end of the piece which Chen rewarded by playing the ‘Obsession’ Prelude from Ysaÿe’s Sonata No.2 in A minor. It was a sublime moment and quiet reigned in the hall.
With Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No.2 in E minor, Noseda and the NYO-USA hit their stride. Noseda is an energetic presence on the podium and, for the Rachmaninoff, he was at his most exuberant. There was no doubt that the young players would get the notes right, but it was Noseda’s job to draw the maximum depth of emotion from them. He did that with aplomb while also getting a remarkable transparency and depth in their sound: all the more impressive a feat as they have only been rehearsing as an ensemble for a matter of weeks.
Rachmaninoff featured solo instruments throughout the symphony, especially in two brooding melodies in the Adagio. The solo clarinet imbued one of them with rich tone and sensitivity, along with the solo horn and flute with their perfectly placed snippets of the tune. Violins and violas caressed the other melody with silken tone and expansive phrasing.
Encores are de rigueur at NYO-USA concerts, and Noseda and the orchestra complied with two popular favorites: the Intermezzo from Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and the Trepak from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Tchaikovsky’s tempo marking is molto vivace – prestissimo. Noseda and the NYO-USA may have overachieved in reaching that goal, but it was wonderful.
Rick Perdian
Featured Image: Gianandrea Noseda conducts the NYO-USA © Chris Lee