Critical acclaim for HarrisonParrott artists at Southbank Centre's Boulez Festival

4 October 2011

Barbara Hannigan's 2 October performance with Ensemble InterContemporain and Pierre Boulez completed an acclaimed series of Boulez's work at London's Southbank Centre. Opening with Susanna Mälkki conducting the Royal Academy of Music's Manon ensemble, which The Times' Richard Morrison described as "superb", the festival also featured Peter Eötvös conducting the London Sinfonietta, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard (artistic advisor to the series) performing Boulez's piano works with Tamara Stefanovich, performances which Michael Church in The Independent wrote "were as definitive as it gets".  

Barbara Hannigan's performance of Pli Selon Pli with the composer conducting received particular acclaim from the UK press, with Neil Fisher also commenting in The Times:

"What felt new here, with Boulez’s deliberate baton guiding the silky playing of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and the extraordinary Hannigan somehow finding a cool voluptuousness in every vertiginous leap her voice took, was the sheer sensuality of it. Debussy wandered all over the diaphonous harmonies. Once past the initial thunderclap that begins the piece, Hannigan’s first seductive utterance had the headiness of Ravel’s Shéhérazade."

The Evening Standard's Barry Millington was also impressed, commenting on "a stunningly meticulous reading". Ultimately it was Andrew Clements of The Guardian who summed up the performance of Boulez's masterpiece:

"...it still sends shivers down the spine, and none of the previous London performances I've heard has had such a remarkable soprano soloist as Hannigan, whose beauty of tone and understanding of Boulez's melismatic vocal writing are quite extraordinary. Finally, one senses, Pli Selon Pli has received the consummate performance its compositional virtuosity demands."

Please click on the links below to read a selection of the reviews in full.

The Guardian

The Independent

Evening Standard

The Times