The Washington Post
By Anne Midgette
Gianandrea Noseda, 54, ushers a visitor into his spotless Kennedy Center office. As the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, he has a large room that is, at the moment, minimal in its decor: walls bare, shelves empty. The sole personal touch is a gleaming silver espresso machine, courtesy of the Italian coffee company Lavazza, and even that is more than just an expression of personal taste. Lavazza has sponsored Noseda’s work in the past and, now that he’s here, has landed the Kennedy Center coffee franchise: There are Lavazza machines in food service areas throughout the building. ¶ A music director is the public face of an orchestra. He or she sets the course of programming, oversees auditions for new players, meets donors and attends fundraising events and tries, however he or she can, to establish a significant presence in the community. And yet Noseda’s bare office bears witness to another salient fact of the job: The music director is hardly ever here.
Noseda’s face is plastered on posters all over the Kennedy Center to let people know a new era has begun. But on May 20, when he leaves Washington after his final subscription concerts of his inaugural season, he will have been here for eight weeks since September. Next season, he will increase his presence to 12 weeks. That’s not unusual for a major music director. Christoph Eschenbach, Noseda’s predecessor, was never at the NSO for more than 10 weeks a season. At least Noseda and his wife, Lucia, have gotten an apartment in Washington; many international music directors, like Riccardo Muti at the Chicago Symphony, live in hotels. (Noseda’s home, when he’s there, is on Lago Maggiore, in Italy; he also has an apartment in Milan.)