Barbara Hannigan: The 2024/25 Season

‘There’s usually a dramatic line through each of my programmes. I’m a singer, and as a singer I’m also an actor; I’m always thinking about the text, the storyline and the context, so the dramaturgy is very important to me. On top of that, I need to feel an urgency and need to perform the pieces I programme.

I love Haydn; his orchestral music, piano sonatas and string quartets are just so incredible! When I started conducting, I thought, ‘104 symphonies. Fantastic! I can spend the rest of my life exploring his work!’ I’m very particular about how I approach the pieces. I’m very hands-on with Haydn scores: besides buying and studying the score, I purchase an entire set of parts, and for every single player, I imagine how I want every part to be played, working with my librarian to mark every detail in advance: the up and down-bows for the strings, the articulations, character and phrasing … everything. The parts are then sent in advance to the orchestras with whom I work, so that we are, literally, starting from the same page. Of course there is flexibility and the details can be adapted during rehearsals to suit each orchestra’s character and preference, but this initial preparation sets the tone.

For me, Claude Vivier is one of the great composers, of any era! I remember when I first heard his music, I was 17 or 18 years old. I had just moved to Toronto, after having grown up in the east-coast village of Waverley, Nova Scotia. Going to a lot of concerts, I felt a kid in a candy shop. So much to discover! Hearing Vivier’s music had a powerful effect on me: more than any other music it felt transformative. At that point, as a young musician, I didn’t even have words for it. All I knew was that I was not the same, would never be the same again, after a performance of his music. The same feeling still exists in me, to this day.’