Barbara Hannigan, LSO Associate Artist, opens our 2023/24 Season at the Barbican with four electrifying performances. Here, she introduces her concerts.
![Barbara Hannigan Barbara Hannigan conducting the LSO](https://images.lso.co.uk/uploads/2023/03/26_20-Sep_HSF_Mark-Allan_resized.jpg?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
‘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
![13 March 2025_250313_Barbara Hannigan_event masthead_Mark Allan Barbara Hannigan conducting the LSO, lunging forwards](https://images.lso.co.uk/uploads/2024/03/13-March-2025-250313-Barbara-Hannigan_event-masthead_Mark-Allan.jpg?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
Britten and Haydn 'London' Symphony
Barbara Hannigan and Stéphane Degout
Thursday 13 March 2025 • 7pm
Haydn, Britten, Roussel and Ravel all conjure up faraway lands, both real and imagined. The sensational Barbara Hannigan conducts and sings, alongside baritone Stéphane Degout.
![Barbara Hannigan c Kevin Leighton Barbara Hannigan conudcting on the Barbican stage](https://images.lso.co.uk/uploads/2024/04/Untitled-design-11.jpg?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
Half Six Fix: Bartók
Barbara Hannigan
Wednesday 19 March 2025 • 6.30pm
Spritely, thrilling and evocative: three short pieces take us on a journey beyond the concert hall.
![20 March 2025_250320_Barbara Hannigan_event masthead_Mark Allan Barbara Hannigan conducting the LSO, arms outstretched to either side.](https://images.lso.co.uk/uploads/2024/03/20-March-2025-250320-Barbara-Hannigan-event-masthead-Mark-Allan.jpg?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
Vivier, Haydn and Bartók
Barbara Hannigan
Thursday 20 March 2025 • 7pm
Miracles and myths abound, from surreal ballet to Finnish landscape, with music by Sibelius, Debussy, Haydn, Vivier and a new piece from Golfam Khayam.