US National Symphony Orchestra triumphs in La Scala debut with Italian conductor Noseda

MILAN — Conductor Gianandrea Noseda made a triumphant return to Teatro alla Scala in an informal role as cultural ambassador, leading the U.S. National Symphony Orchestra that he has made more “luminous” with his personal loan of centuries-old Italian-made instruments.

Noseda’s energetic performance Monday evening marked the emotional highlight of the NSO’s nine-city European tour, its first in nearly a decade. It was both a homecoming for the 59-year-old and the orchestra’s debut to the famously exacting La Scala audience.

The concert, which included an original composition by the Kennedy Center’s in-house composer Carlos Simon and Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho playing Beethoven, received a rare standing ovation.

“It is so meaningful to perform in the theater of the city where I studied at the conservatory and where I regularly attended concerts when I was a teenager and as a young man,’’ Noseda told a private reception that included his parents and brother.

From his student days living in the scrappy, industrial Milan suburb of Sesto San Giovanni and commuting to the Milan Conservatory, Noseda has risen to become one of the world’s most sought-after conductors.

He was recognized last year as the best conductor by the German international opera awards. Besides his role as NSO music director, he is also general music director of the Zurich Opera House and founding conductor of the Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra in Tsinandali, Georgia, created in the spirit of Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra uniting Israeli and Palestinian musicians.

His past roles have included principal guest conductor at the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Russia’s Mariinsky Theatre, Italy’s RAI National Symphonic Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.