Barbara Hannigan, LSO Associate Artist, opens our 2023/24 Season at the Barbican with four electrifying performances. Here, she introduces her concerts.
‘There is a real sense of dark and light in the two programmes that open the 2023/24 season.
The opening concert could be summed up by the title of the piece by Claude Vivier: Where Are You Light!. It’s a searching programme, with music by Ligeti, Nono, Haydn, Vivier and Strauss. It’s searching for light, it’s about understanding the repercussions of the lives that we have lived. It has hope – in Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration – but also loss – in Ligeti’s Ramifications. There is a journey: we move from dark to light.
There is a journey: we move from dark to light.
After this, we have a Half Six Fix concert and a programme focused on Stravinsky, where there is a lot of material for the Orchestra to absolutely shine. The ballet Pulcinella is a wonderful, characterful piece for three soloists and orchestra, very much Neo-Classical in style. Stravinsky took old music from different operas and did his Stravinsky thing – he played with it, changed the rhythms, and displaced the bar lines. I am thrilled to bring Haydn’s Symphony No 64, ‘Tempora mutantur’, to the programme … one of my all-time favorite composers, and this particular symphony moving firmly towards the modern and strange, in a very touching way.
And then we come to the end of Stravinsky’s Neo-Classical period with the Symphony in Three Movements, a piece that I absolutely love. It’s muscular, dynamic and bombastic at times – it’s really fun to conduct, and fun for the orchestra to play.’
The Concerts
Hope in the Dark – Barbara Hannigan
Stormy. Daring. Transformative.
Thursday 14 September 2023 • 7pm
To open the LSO's new season, Barbara Hannigan sings and conducts music that sheds light on dark times, with works by Ligeti, Vivier, Haydn, Nono and Strauss.
Hope in the Dark – Barbara Hannigan
Stormy. Daring. Transformative.
Sunday 17 September 2023 • 7pm
To open the LSO's new season, Barbara Hannigan sings and conducts music that sheds light on dark times, with works by Ligeti, Vivier, Haydn, Nono and Strauss.
Half Six Fix: Stravinsky's Pulcinella
Delightful. Jaunty. Tongue-in-cheek.
Wednesday 20 September 2023 • 6.30pm
Kick-start your evening with a 60-minute concert, featuring the perfect balance of sweet and bitter in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, a time-warp drama for three voices.
Radical Magic – The Sound of Stravinsky
Gripping. Exhilarating. Poignant.
Thursday 21 September 2023 • 7pm
Barbara Hannigan conducts music by Haydn and Stravinsky – a composer who still sounds new every time you hear him.