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High contrasts of light and darkness make a special event in Boulez, Benjamin and Brahms at the Barbican. 

The Canadian soprano and her accomplished accompanist, Bertrand Chamayou, offer a thoughtful and eclectic program of Messiaen, Scriabin and John Zorn.

Strong performances from Elīna Garanča, Barbara Hannigan and John Relyea plus innovative stage direction make for a standout production.

The multitalented soprano and conductor gives a stupendous performance with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. 

Tempora mutantur; an inventive programme abut changing times, in the metrical, art-historical, and geo-political senses. 

An enticing Barbican programme from Barbara Hannigan, seeking light out of darkness in pieces spanning three different centuries, and an electrifying vocal performance by mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron. 

The Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra opens the Istanbul Music Festival featuring a showstopping, all-singing, all-conducting Gershwin finale. 

Barbara Hannigan conducts the LSO at the Barbican in an eclectic programme full of exuberant flair.

Barbara Hannigan is better than ever in Krzysztof Warlikowski's iconic Lulu at La Monnaie – an historic event.

The program prominently featured compositions by Canadian composer Claude Vivier alongside works of Haydn and Busoni.

Audiences return to the Maison de la Radio for Barbara Hannigan and l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. 

The soprano seemed to be duetting with players as much as conducting them in Knoxville: Summer of 1915.

Singing as well as conducting, Barbara Hannigan leads the GSO in symphonies by Haydn and Mahler. 

Despite some fine young voices, a concert staging of The Rake's Progress proves problematic in Hamburg.

Pure jouissance from that musical multitasker extraordinaire Barbara Hannigan in an evening of contrasting delights with the London Symphony Orchestra.

The celebrated soprano leads the students of the Juilliard in an enjoyable concert that falters on the side of keeping an even keel.

Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO kick off the New Year by showcasing a contemporary vocal masterpiece (with Barbara Hannigan as soloist) together with two symphonies by Nordic composers.

Hrůša and the Bamberg Symphony produce Brahms of glorious warmth; Hans Abrahamsen's Let me tell you displays Barbara Hannigan at her most virtuosic.

In Bérénice, given its world première at the Opéra Garnier, composer Michael Jarrell revisits Racine's refined tragedy with the help of the inspired voices of Barbara Hannigan and Bo Skovhus.

George Benjamin and Martin Crimp's second full scale opera is a refinement of the craft showed in Written on Skin – but the lessons are less in love and violince than in power, tension and beauty of the score.

Hannigan plays with expectations, opening with a single spotlight after a complete stage blackout to dramatic effect, and I am pretty sure she was rocking slippers on stage. 

Barbara Hannigan joined pianist Reinbert de Leeuw for a Second Viennese School recital at the Park Avenue Armory.

The Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia's second performance of the weekend at Carnegie Hall featured compelling Salvatore Sciarrino and a heavy-footed Mahler 6.

Brett Dean treats Shakespeare's behemoth as a timeless story told in language that has become timeless; no effort is spared in elucidating and amplifying that story.

An uncompromising approach to the unfinished score of Berg's opera results in a compelling musical and dramatic interpretation.

The Royal Opera's first revival of George Benjamin's medieval shocker is characterised by stellar singing performances, notably from Barbara Hannigan and Iestyn Davies.

Lewis Carroll's Alice: so crazy that all Gerald Barry can do is make it crazier.

A pair of auspicious debuts marked the CBSO's Prom: MirgaGražinyte-Tyla was making her London debut, plus it was the first time that Hans Abrahamsen's song cycle let me tell you was to be heard in the capital. 

Shorn of Katie Mitchell’s production and presented on the Barbican Hall’s stage with only the occasional prop, George Benjamin's modern masterpiece Written on Skin came across with even greater intensity.

Shostakovich’s sprawling Fourth Symphony filled the rest of the concert in an epic performance.

A daring, fascinating pairing of two modern operas by Krzysztof Warlikowski in Paris. 

First seen at the innovative, fearless Aix-en-Provence festival three summers ago, George Benjamin’s riveting, grisly Written on Skin has arrived in New York. 

Simon Rattle devised an “Imaginary Symphony” with wit; the Vienna Philharmonic obliged.

The first of two concerts given by the Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican Hall, with Barbara Hannigan as both singer and conductor.

The Philharmonia's City of Light season goes from strength to strength with an outstanding performance of Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges and Dutilleux's Correspondances.

Magnus Lindberg's first work for solo voice proves an important new contribution to the genre, while Debussy, Wagner and Scriabin lack magic.

Barbara Hannigan joined the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle for performances of Berg’s Three Fragments from Wozzeck and Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre. 

The Bayerische Staatsoper presents an ugly, brutal staging of Zimmermann's Die Soldaten – which is exactly as it should be. Barbara Hannigan's Marie steals the show, but the entire cast manage seemingly impossible musical and dramatic feats.

Barbara Hannigan gives a virtuoso performance of Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Lucerne.

Conductor, Andris Nelsons, once again demonstrated his affinity with Richard Strauss in a magnificent performance of his tone poem, Symphonia Domestica.

Barbara Hannigan stars both as singer and conductor with ensemble Ludwig at the Concertgebouw. This is a difficult double act and one that doesn't entirely succeed.

An honest and subtle performance from Barbara Hannigan in the Dutch première of Hans Abrahamsen’s song cycle which tells Ophelia's story. 

The Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle came to Paris last weekend for an eclectic program: Mozart’s final three symphonies on Saturday night, and the decadence of Schoenberg, Berg and Stravinsky on Sunday afternoon.

The Philadelphia Orchestra was visibly enjoying their evening at Carnegie Hall with Sir Simon Rattle, their frequent guest conductor who nearly became their music director. In a program of early modern classics and a perennial Beethoven favorite, energy and spirits were high and in good supply.

Tonight’s concert was a prime example of the solid programming of Southbank Centre’s The Rest is Noise festival. The concert, titled “Music from Dark Times”, included pieces by Webern, Berg, Bartók and Martinů, written between 1934 and 1941, which were indeed dark times for all these composers.

21st century opera is a broad church. There aren’t many of us, I suppose, who are intimately familiar with the biographical accounts of the lives of 13th century troubadours, popular at the time in Spain and south west France. But Martin Crimp and George Benjamin, librettist and composer of Written on skin, aren’t exactly run of the mill people.

Venturing into the Paris of the 1910s and 1920s, the Southbank Centre’s The Rest is Noise festival continues its journey through a brambly thicket of 20th-century music. Sunday’s programme focused on the output of Igor Stravinsky, the Russian composer who famously engendered riotous uproar at the Paris Opera House in 1913 with his savage ballet Le sacre du printemps.

Billed as “The soundtrack of the 20th century”, The Rest is Noise season of 2013 has now commenced at the Southbank Centre. Concert programmes scheduled throughout January have focused on the Second Viennese School and its infamous break with western tonality.

The Importance of Being Earnest is Gerald Barry’s fourth full-length opera; his previous three have set texts much more at home in the opera world than this ambitious libretto from Wilde’s famous play.

Many people are somewhat reserved about attending concerts where contemporary music is played. Probably, these reservations are sometimes appropriate, but whenever you stumble upon Pierre Boulez performing with his Ensemble intercontemporain and Lucerne Festival Academy Ensemble, you might want to consider gracing the performance with your presence.