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London Symphony Orchestra/Barbara Hannigan

Ligeti, Vivier, Haydn, Nono & Strauss

Barbara Hannigan Image 230302

Mark Allan

To open our 2023/24 Barbican season, Barbara Hannigan sings and conducts music that searches for light in dark times.

Richard Strauss’ tone poems always express profound emotions; in Death and Transfiguration he explores the mysteries of life and death. Ligeti’s intense harmonies swarm into your ears in his Ramifications for strings – while Haydn’s ‘Lamentatione’ Symphony brings a thrilling contrast in musical style.

Vivier’s poetic Wo bist du Licht! (Where are you, light!) is a musical meditation on human suffering that incorporates audio tape reels of Martin Luther King Jr’s final speech and news of the Vietnam War. And Hannigan sings a tribute to an Algerian freedom fighter in Luigi Nono’s soaring aria Djamila Boupacha which longs for a fairer world.

LSO Associate Artist Barbara Hannigan transfixes audiences with her definitive, boundary-pushing performances. Critics praise Fleur Barron’s rich, honeyed voice. 

This performance will end at approximately 9.05pm, including a 20-minute interval.

Produced by the London Symphony Orchestra

Hall