La Passione

As phenomenal a conductor as she is a soprano, Barbara Hannigan leads this exhilarating, often harrowing three-part exploration of suffering and death. She despatches Nono’s “Djamila Boupacha,” a desperate rail against injustice, with technical and dramatic poise, her penetrating voice soaring into the stratosphere with apparent ease. Haydn’s Symphony No. 49 “La Passione” sobs and sighs, rages and thunders under Hannigan’s baton, her orchestra’s playing expressive yet utterly precise. Grisey’s Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil conjure up extraordinary soundworlds, Hannigan’s astonishing vocal agility and emotional depth matched by her total mastery of the composer’s ever-shifting orchestral landscapes. A thrilling journey through the darkness of the soul.