Sala: Kennedy Center: Concert Hall, Washington

Clarion details from start to finish result in a spectacular Mahler Fifth from Noseda and the National Symphony Orchestra

After a humdrum reimagining of Paganini's 24th Caprice and an underwhelming Rachmaninov piano concerto, Slatkin triumphs with an august Copland 3.

Kevin Puts’ expanded work on Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Steiglitz provides another triumph for Renée Fleming and the NSO, while two Strauss works demonstrate both its artistic re-emergence and work left to do.

A major work going well beyond tango by Astor Piazzolla and a fresh introduction to African-American composer Florence Price highlight a concert that tries a bit too hard to please

Krzysztof Urbański elects an ideal pace and shape for Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony in a guest conducting appearance with the National Symphony Orchestra, on an evening also featuring Lise de la Salle playing Chopin.

A good audience turnout for the opening of Noseda's third NSO season justifies an all-20th-century program centering on Carl Orff's popular and direct setting of medieval poems about real life and fate, but also presenting gentler works of religious reflection.