National Symphony Orchestra

Fred Begun, a Brooklyn-born Juilliard graduate who spent 48 years as principal timpanist of the National Symphony Orchestra, died Sept. 23 at George Washington University Hospital. He was 84. He died of complications from a single-car accident three weeks ago, said his daughter Rosalie Begun. Two months after graduating in 1951 with a percussion degree from the Juilliard School in New York, Mr. Begun became the timpanist for the NSO. It was a rare symphony orchestra vacancy in an era where most timpanists found jobs in...

Nostalgia is built into classical music. Not only is the bulk of the repertoire from the past, but audiences are full of people who are happy to tell you about superior past performances of the same works: The time they heard Kleiber, or Bernstein, or Szell. This spring, the National Symphony Orchestra has been doing a lot of looking back fondly on the tenure of the late Mstislav Rostropovich, the cellist-conductor who led the orchestra from 1977 to 1994. On Thursday night, it played "Alexander Nevsky," Prokofiev's bright and...

Leonard Slatkin, the music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and former music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, suffered a heart attack on Sunday while conducting a concert with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. He is recovering in a hospital in the Netherlands after an operation to insert two stents. Slatkin, 65, was aware of chest pains during the afternoon performance, but was able to finish the concert -- Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3, with Lars Vogt, and Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 -- before going to the...

The classical world is not one for randomness. It is the enemy of control, the bearer of distraction, the desultory foe that ruins concertos and careers. But randomness was thrust upon Augustin Hadelich at age 15, when a fire consumed his family home and part of him, burning his face, his abdomen, his bow arm. The German violinist, who was well on his way to a professional career, nearly died and required months of rehabilitation and several skin grafts. He didn't pick up a...

Vladimir Ashkenazy closed out the National Symphony Orchestra's subscription season with a bracing trio of classics by Walton and Shostakovich. This repertoire plays to the NSO's strengths and avoids its weaknesses, and the performances are well worth hearing. The principal offering, Shostakovich's epic Tenth, is one of the great symphonies of the past century. Composed in a period of relative liberation, immediately after the death of Stalin, it looks back on the sclerotic oppression of his era with...

William Steck, a violinist who performed under some of the most eminent conductors of the latter half of the 20th century and served as concertmaster of the National Symphony Orchestra for nearly two decades, died April 13 at Inova Mount Vernon Hospital. He was 79. His death, from respiratory failure, was confirmed by his wife, Ann Steck. From his appointment as concertmaster in 1982 until he stepped down in 2001, Mr. Steck was a familiar and essential presence at NSO...

This season, the National Symphony Orchestra has started occasionally varying the format of its subscription concerts. Rather than offer the same thing on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the NSO sometimes plays something different on Friday night. This week, Friday's concert is a preview of the performance that the orchestra will give May 11 at Carnegie Hall — its first performance there with its current music director, Christoph Eschenbach. On Thursday and Saturday, however, instead of...

There's a whole lot of loving going on at the National Symphony Orchestra this weekend. Its current program, which opened Thursday, focuses exclusively on pieces about tragic romance, expressed fulsomely, from Wagner's Prelude and "Liebestod," from "Tristan und Isolde," to Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" and — possibly gilding the lily — "Francesca da Rimini. " In between those two composers comes the most aching and poignant work of all, Peter Lieberson's "Neruda Songs.

When musicians venture outside their comfort zone, the risk-taking can be thrilling. The same is true for audiences. After British composer and conductor Oliver Knussen's last appearance with the National Symphony Orchestra — as part of an intense CrossCurrents festival in 2009 — it was no surprise that his latest appearance at the podium of the Kennedy Center Concert Hall brought challenges as well as rewards. On Thursday night, the NSO tackled three of the four pieces on this somewhat daunting program for the...

The classical world is not one for randomness. It is the enemy of control, the bearer of distraction, the desultory foe that ruins concertos and careers. But randomness was thrust upon Augustin Hadelich at age 15, when a fire consumed his family home and part of him, burning his face, his abdomen, his bow arm. The German violinist, who was well on his way to a professional career, nearly died and required months of rehabilitation and several skin grafts. He...

John Adams, the composer, is the rare example of an artist who is able to have it all. He writes contemporary music that appeals to audiences and critics alike without being tarred with the brush of commercial popularization. He is known for having rocked the boat by taking up the torch of minimalism and writing provocative operas on modern themes — yet his work is deliberately linked to classical music's long historic tradition. He has developed a second career as a conductor, which is a great way for a composer to...

Randall Fleischer is a Los Angeles-based composer and music director. But he's also a dance dad, which means he spends a lot of time waiting in the lobby of his daughter's ballet studio. That's where Fleischer got the inspiration for one of his latest works. A few years back, he picked up a dance magazine in the lobby and read about Step Afrika!, the Washington company that has elevated stepping to a high art. Stepping, which originated in the fraternity and sorority system at historically black...

John Adams has become the face of new music for a certain sector of the population. That sector includes presenters. There might be composers who are better known or more prolific — although not many — but Adams has developed a distinctive sideline as a programmer. He not only writes a lot of music, but he also knows a lot about music, and he can even, to a point, conduct music. He has brought those skills together in a number of mini-festivals across the country, most recently at...

John LaMontaine, a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer whose music often premiered at Washington venues and was performed by the National Symphony Orchestra and other local ensembles, died April 29 at his home in Hollywood, Calif. He was 93. He had cardiovascular disease, his nephew Peter Coster said. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Mr. LaMontaine was a rising star among classical composers, winning prizes, fellowships and commissions to write music. He composed an overture for the 1961 presidential inauguration of...

NEW YORK — People ask where the National Symphony Orchestra stands in relation to other American orchestras. Saturday night's concert at Carnegie Hall exemplified it pretty well: It seems to be doing very well, while somehow remaining slightly apart from everyone else, engaged in an orchestral equivalent of parallel play. The concert was a big deal. It was the NSO's first concert at Carnegie since 2008 and its first there under its current music director, Christoph Eschenbach ...

Carnegie Hall celebrated the American orchestra last week. Except that Spring for Music , the festival that ended Saturday, wasn't actually a Carnegie Hall festival. It was sponsored by patrons and foundation grants. And given the turmoil across the country as orchestras battle financial duress and strikes and lockouts lead to concert cancellations, some might ask what exactly there is to celebrate. It's a hard time for orchestras. But then, it's a hard time for a lot of traditional institutions —...

This season, the National Symphony Orchestra has started occasionally varying the format of its subscription concerts. Rather than offer the same thing on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the NSO sometimes plays something different on Friday night. This week, Friday's concert is a preview of the performance that the orchestra will give May 11 at Carnegie Hall — its first performance there with its current music director, Christoph Eschenbach. On Thursday and Saturday, however, instead of 20th-century Russian...