Barbara Hannigan: noblesse oblige | The Press

Once a month, The Press presents some expected appointments for lovers of classical music.

Barbara Hannigan’s name has become synonymous with physical and emotional engagement in contemporary classical repertoire. The soprano and conductor is making her debut with the Orchester symphonique de Montréal, from December 7 to 11.

The Nova Scotian musician, joined in Amsterdam, where she conducts the legendary Concertgebouw Orchestra for three concerts, is surprised to have been so little invited to Montreal, she who also has a cellist sister (Sheila Hannigan) living in The city. His last appearance in the city dates back to 2009 for a collaboration with the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec.

It must be said that Europe is a more natural playground for a figure in contemporary music like her. After having lived in the Netherlands for twenty years, she left her suitcases in Finistère, where she has lived since 2015.

In Montreal, where she will sing alongside the OSM and its conductor Rafael Payare, Barbara Hannigan will perform two of her favorite works: Djamila Boupacha by the Italian Luigi Nono and LonelyChild by Montrealer Claude Vivier. The orchestra will conclude the evening with the melancholy sad waltz of Sibelius and the monumental fantastic symphony by Berlioz.

The soprano gets carried away talking about the two scores, particularly that of Nono, a short piece – about four minutes – for soprano a cappella on a Spanish text, which she has interpreted almost everywhere, notably at La Scala in Milan.

“Djamila Boupacha was an Algerian resistance fighter during the Algerian war. She was accused of a crime and arrested by the police, who tortured her. Her case was taken up by a French lawyer and she became a symbol for the Resistance and human rights. Pablo Picasso painted her and Simone de Beauvoir wrote about her,” she says.

Masterful music

But it’s LonelyChild which is the high point of the concert. Barbara Hannigan is full of praise for our murdered genius: “It is a piece very dear to my heart, I have sung it all over the world, the last time with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. All the orchestras with which I have performed at Le Vivier understand immediately that we are dealing with masterful music. »

“Amazingly, it was in the Netherlands that I heard the most Claude Vivier music,” she says. His music was promoted by conductor and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw. »

“It’s an autobiographical work,” continues the soprano. Vivier grew up in an orphanage and did not know his mother. He was very alone. The language of the play is a combination of French and an invented language he created for himself as a child. He uses this language in all his vocal works. »

If Montrealers will hear Barbara Hannigan sing Vivier, Amsterdammers have for their part seen her perform the work from the podium, her colleague Aphrodite Patoulidou taking charge of the vocal part.

It is true that the singer is a subscriber to exploits, she who sometimes risks combining singing and conducting simultaneously. But not at any price. “I only do it when it makes sense on a dramatic level, to specify the interpreter. I also think it’s easier for a singer to conduct than for a pianist or a violinist, because they use both hands, whereas I’m free. »

Although she conducts more and more romantic music (the Metamorphoses by Strauss were on the program at the Concertgebouw) and classical (she says a-do-rer Haydn), the musician continues, as she has done since the conservatory, to defend the contemporary repertoire. “It became for me a kind of ‘noblesse oblige’,” she confides.

Barbara Hannigan and the fantastic symphony by Berlioz, with the OSM under the direction of Rafael Payare, at the Maison symphonique on December 7, 7:30 p.m., and December 10 and 11, 2:30 p.m.

Also on the program

A Christmas while buzz in Bourgie

The Buzz Brass ensemble has distinguished itself over the years with its chiseled records and its concerts mixing different repertoires. The quintet, which this year celebrates its 20^e anniversary, will be a guest at Bourgie Hall on December 9 (7:30 p.m.) for a family Christmas concert featuring classics such as holy night, Sleigh Ride and Nutcracker.

Safe bets for the Messiah of the CMO

It is the promising chef Simon Rivard who will direct the Messiah of the Orchester Classique de Montréal (OCM) this year. Handel’s seminal work will be performed on December 13 (7:30 p.m.) in the crypt of Saint Joseph’s Oratory with selected soloists: soprano Hélène Brunet, contralto Rose Naggar-Tremblay (winner of the 2021 OSM Competition) , Acadian tenor Zachary Rioux and renowned baritone Phillip Addis. Les Chantres musicians and Les Filles de l’île will provide the choral parts for this concert dedicated to the late conductor Gilbert Patenaude.

A Baroque Christmas on Jesus Island

The Baroque repertoire is not lacking in works more or less associated with Christmas. The Orchester symphonique de Laval will dedicate a full program to it on December 14 (7:30 p.m.) under the direction of Dutch Baroque conductor Vincent de Kort. Go to the Salle André-Mathieu to hear the famous Concerto Grosso “Christmas” by Corelli, excerpts from Messiah by Handel, a Christmas cantata by Bach and “Winter” by Four Seasons by Vivaldi.

Christmas at Olivier Messiaen

Fancy a Christmas concert like no other? Nicholas Capozzoli, musical director of Christ Church Anglican Cathedral (corner Robert-Bourassa and Sainte-Catherine), will play the complete The Nativity by Messiaen on December 21 (7 p.m.) on the Wilhelm organ of which he is the titular. Nine pieces of deep spirituality recounting the birth of Jesus through birdsong and Hindu rhythms.