Thursday, November 20, 2025
Conductor Edward Gardner will be leading Tchaikovsky’s popular Symphony No. 5 at the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall with the National Symphony Orchestra this Thursday, Saturday and Sunday only. The symphony’s powerful melodies and roaring brass, combined with softer, more emotional parts make for spectacular, edge-of-your-seat ride. The Georgetowner spoke with Gardner, who is principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, about Tchaikovsky, conducting the NSO and when he first fell in love with classical music.
Tickets to Gardner’s performances can be found here.
Tell us more about Tchaikovsky’s Fifth and how you’re making it your own unique performance.
The National Symphony can play Tchaikovsky’s 5 in their sleep, so a lot of what we worked on was preparing for spontaneity in performance and being free for wherever the music takes us. The piece is in many ways a victim of its own success, so I love being open to feeling it afresh in each performance.
Tchaikovsky is very special to me. I think perhaps [Eugene] Onegin is my favorite opera, a distillation of emotions that haunts me whenever I’m near it. I learned to understand his symphonic language through the emotions in Onegin—deep passion, loss and memories of happiness.
What do you like most about conducting the NSO?
The NSO are a world class orchestra. I love their openness, curiosity and sense of fun. Whenever I’m with them it feels like wonderful comradeship towards great performances.
When did you first fall in love with classical music and know conducting was your passion and career?
I was lucky as a child to get a music scholarship, and therefore free education, to sing in Gloucester Cathedral Choir, so I was making music for two hours every day in that exquisite building from the age of 7. Choral music is still a big part of my life, and I love the great Oratorios, from Verdi’s Requiem, to Tippett’s Child of our Time.
I remember being obsessed with the structure of music from a young age; how to shape a piece and contour it so the message or emotion behind it really tells with the listeners. I think this is a big part of me becoming a conductor, although that was something I only set my heart on in my late teens. That architecture of great works is still something which completely fascinates me today.