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Part I »Bright Lights«

IGOR STRAVINSKY »Pulcinella«

JOSEPH HAYDN Symphony No. 90 in C Major, Hob. I:90

GEORGE GERSHWIN »Girl Crazy« Suite arranged by BILL ELLIOTT

Part II »The Dark Side«

CHARLES IVES »The Unanswered Question«

ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG »Verklärte Night« for string orchestra, op. 4

CLAUDE VIVIER »Lonely Child« for soprano and orchestra

Barbara Hannigan Soprano, Musical Direction

Aphrodite Patoulidou Soprano

Coline Dutilleul Mezzo-soprano

Charles Sy Tenor

Douglas Williams Bass-baritone

Ludwigsburg Festival Orchestra

Katrin Schuster, Katrin Weinmann, Simon Claß, Manuel Widenmann Camera

Sebastian Schmiedt, Matthias Pfund Video Engineering

Daniel Wiesmann, Joshua Numrich Graphics 

Tim Gotzkowsky Stream Engineering 

Matthias Brugger Lighting 

Daniel Keinath, Bettina Bertók, Lorenzo Westermann, Andreas Barnowsky Sound

Patrick Heidorn OB management

Timo Schade Production Management

Jasmin Impertro Editing 

Jörg Thomas Mohr Director 

Lucilla Schmidinger Production

Paul Gengenbach Editing ARTE Concert 

Christopher Janssen Editing ZDF 

At the culmination of her week-long residency at the Ludwigsburg Festival, Barbara Hannigan devotes herself entirely to the play of light and shadow in her first collaboration with the Ludwigsburg Festival Orchestra. Hannigan, who is both a soprano and a conductor, borrows this source of inspiration from a style of baroque painting. In the programme of the same name, the contrasting »Chiaroscuro« is translated into two successive concerts. »Bright Lights« opens up a world of optimistic sounds, catchy melodies and amusing musical ideas. Igor Stravinsky's »Pulcinella« is characterised by a neo-classical approach that strives for a friendlier tone after its gruff predecessors. Joseph Haydn's 90th Symphony, on the other hand, shows how to tell a joke in a musical way. For the grand finale, Hannigan impresses in the swinging suite of George Gershwin's »Girl Crazy« as the conductor sings together with the whole festival orchestra. »The Dark Side« responds to this high spirits with profound emotions: Charles Ives' »The Unanswered Question« reveals the impossibility of answering the perennial question of existence. Based on a poem by Richard Dehmel, Arnold Schönberg's »Verklärte Nacht« is equally drenched in melancholy, self-doubt and crisis. Even shortly before his step into atonality, Schönberg finds light in the darkness in this work with a conciliatory and consoling major ending. The forceful gong from Claude Vivier's »Lonely Child« finally releases the audience into the night in a state of musical suspension.

A production of the Ludwigsburg Festival in co-production with ZDF in collaboration with ARTE Concert. Supported by Wüstenrot Foundation and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.