Thursday evening saw one of Barbara Hannigan’s comparatively rare Toronto appearances.  This time it was part of a ten city tour with pianist Bertrand Chamayou.  It was a three part programme with no intermission.  First up was Olivier Messiaen Chants de terre et ciel.  Like the better known Poèmes pour Mi these are reflections on family and religion.

I’d say this was pretty classic Hannigan territory; complex, varied 20th century rep.  The mood of these pieces varies quite a bit.  “Bail avec Mi (pour ma femme)” for example has floaty extended high notes while “Arc en ciel d’innocence (pour mon petit Pascal” is much more playful.  I was watching and listening very much from the perspective of the three hour master class Barbara had given the day before.  The carefully considered vocal technique was tangible; how to shape a phrase, how to end a vowel for example.  But so was her body language.  This was by no means a German style performance where the singer never gestures.  She used her body a lot but there was no trace of the stock operatic movement clichés and her feet never moved.

She also wasn’t afraid of making ugly sounds.  In “Minuit pile ou face (pour la mort)” she not only darkened the voice to a striking degree but was super dramatic; almost screaming.  So,often on the edge but always in a considered way.  The lighting was interesting too; a sort of deep purple, which was very beautiful but made the printed texts supplied rather useless.

For part two we got Chamayou playing two pieces by Scriabin; Poème nocturne, op.61 and Vers la flamme, op.72.  It was good.  Fine, exciting playing with the lighting changed to red.  It was technically demanding material but not nearly as much as what came next.

John Zorn’s Jumalatteret is a set of eleven short extracts from the Kalevala (in Finnish) in praise of the ancient goddesses of Sami culture.  We got to hear six of them.  It’s a work that places extraordinary demands on both singer and pianist.  When it’s more or less conventional t’s often fast, high and very complex with insane leaps and runs but that’s just the start.  There are spoken passages, grunting into the piano, super-fast chattery chipmunk like passages, extended piano technique and much more.  And yet, running through all the technical complexity there are patches of great beauty and simplicity and a kind of ritualistic or folk dance quality that holds it together to create something deeply coherent.

Besides extraordinary playing and vocalising quite a lot of thought had gone into how the work was presented.  Blue lighting seemed to evoke the short northern summer while Barbara’s outfit suggested some sort of shimmering Sami goddess.  It was a truly amazing performance.

The photos, by Luciano Romano, are not from last night but do illustrate the “look”accurately.