I had read a lot about Barbara Hannigan before I heard the sound of her voice for the first time. Magazines described her as the first lady of alternative repertoire, a soprano heiress of Cathy Berberian or something of the kind. It is a repertoire in which is difficult to establish how extraordinary a voice is for sheer lack of comparison, but Ms. Hannigan found a place for herself and even surprised the audience by her increasing activity as a conductor. My experience of her artistry had been restricted to YouTube videos until this evening, when she appeared both as soloist and maestra in a curious double bill of Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen and Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine with the Musikkolegium Winterthur.
On a second thought, the combination of Strauss’s study for string orchestra and Poulenc’s “pocket” opera share a state of mind, the reluctant parting with a disappearing reality. In a way, Ms. Hannigan could capture the ambiguity behind that in both works. Although there are more glamorous accounts of Metamorphosen in terms of beauty of sound, this evening’s performance offered something very special in terms of dynamic flexibility and the unhurried, loving way intensity was gradually built. I had never seen La Voix Humaine live, and my experience with it was mostly based on George Prêtre’s recording with the singer for whom the role was written, Denise Duval. My first impression this evening had to do with the sound picture. In a work like this, the audience expects an “intimate” perspective of a close-up singer with orchestral “accompaniment”, almost like a magnified continuo in a long recitative. This is why I was surprised to find again the Straussian, string-dense sound in the Poulenc. The soprano voice was wrapped in orchestral sound and seemed to form a single unity with it that made expression even more intense. This does not mean that Ms. Hannigan as a soloist offered a heavily expressive performance. On the contrary.
On hearing Ms. Duval’s performance in the Prêtre recording, one can understand what Poulenc saw in her. Beauty of tone and clarity of delivery are never opposed in her performance – it is delivered in absolute textual transparence, naturalness and femininity. The listener is immediately captivated. Although the voice has a richly textured to sound, she sings this text as an actress would have spoken it. Ms. Hannigan’s voice is less rich and softer-cored than Denise Duval’s, especially in the middle/low areas. She sang it rather with a Mélisande “float” that brought a sense of seduction and mystery to her performance. Is the whole thing an act? Is she for real? What is true and what is not? It is particularly fascinating that having the tiple job of singing, conducting and acting (although she had her back to the audience, a projection on a screen let the audience watch her every movement, which doubled as indications for the orchestra and a theatrical choreography) her perfomance was so subtly varied in every aspect. First, her voice live is more appealing than in recordings. I remember having had a similar experience when I saw Felicity Lott live for the first time – there is more to the sound than the microphones can capture. I cannot say if there was miking this evening (because she sang to the orchestra and not into the auditorium), but if indeed there was, it was subtle and only enhanced the natural sound of her soprano. Second, her French is more than idiomatic; she delivered it with all the little idiosyncrasies of a native French speaker. Third, although the acting couldn’t be naturalistic in these circumstances, it was really integrated in her vocal performance. In other words, the fact that she was concentrating all these aspects made the whole music making this evening especially coherent. One could imagine that this could have been distracting for the musicians in the orchestra, but that did not seem to be the case. I noticed that they felt particularly connected to the expressive universe of the piece and responded accordingly. This was so unique that one couldn’t help but feeling overwhelmed. Even if the Strauss was well received by the audience, the Poulenc got a standing ovation.
I HEAR VOICES 
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