Reviews

Cimbalom en harmonium zijn niet meteen de eerste instrumenten waaraan je denkt bij klassieke muziek. Toch plaatst het immer avontuurlijke collectief Ludwig juist deze buitenbeentjes centraal tijdens twee concerten, op zaterdag 26 september in het AVROTROS Vrijdagconcert in Utrecht en op zondag 27-9 in het Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ in Amsterdam. Continue reading…  ...

Conducting and singing. Barbara Hannigan celebrated her fiftieth birthday in the NTR ZaterdagMatinee. She was a strong conductor, but when she also sang at the same time, it was truly exceptional. Also LUDWIG, a collective of top musicians, makes music with the same devotion. Even in an empty (due to COVID regulations) Concertgebouw the chemistry […]...

Barbara Hannigan, soprano and conductor, celebrated her fiftieth birthday with a concert at the NTR ZaterdagMatinee, which was just as unforgettable as the previous times she appeared in the Concertgebouw, when she was not yet celebrating her fiftieth birthday. Since 2014, when she made her debut with the LUDWIG Orchestra, in the Great Hall, her […]...

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‘Hannigan succeeds in making the lyrics immensely expressive and, as conductor and soloist, she inspires her orchestra to a grippingly mysterious interpretation.’ [Grisey]...

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‘The spare, exploratory music of Gérard Grisey is a rare bird in standard concert programmes. It is a fair bet that it has never been paired with a Haydn symphony before, but then reaching out in unlikely directions is what Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is all about.’ ‘Hannigan holds the programme together through […]...

‘Le résultat saute à l’oreille à travers la théâtralité explosive de la pulsation et de variations dynamiques appuyées…’...

On y reconnaîtra sans peine la marque de l’engagement de l’interprète en faveur de la création, qu’elle a toujours mis un point d’honneur à servir, aussi bien en tant que chanteuse qu’en tant que cheffe....

‘L’agilité extraordinaire de la chanteuse et le soin qu’elle porte à la moindre note apparentent cette page à une sanctification de la douleur.’...

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Read the review on De Volkskrant...

‘Here is the singing of someone totally unafraid, leaping securely over vast distances, stamina yoked with high emotions.’ ‘Hannigan’s direction of the Ludwig Orchestra, a Dutch ensemble, brings gutsy results’ ‘Beginning with the sounds of mass breathing, ending with a gentle lullaby, Grisey’s mind-expanding piece may focus on death, but it is equally music of […]...

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In ‘the Dancing Brain’, brain professor Erik Scherder explains how the grey matter works. After this everone benificially walzes and rumbas for one hour to live music played by LUDWIG’s Ballroom Band. Result: the most bizarre andamusing show in years. Ballroom dancing: who is still doing it? The foxtrot, the chachacha, the rumba? But it […]...

Their string tuttis had a punchy energy that surged through the auditorium: the passacaglia-like string quartet before the graveyard scene has rarely sounded more disturbing; the principal trumpet’s mariachi blare between the scenes of Act 2 felt amost submersive....

Undiminished the inspiring succes story of LUDWIG and Barbara Hannigan continues. It even gained pace and impact. Firstly there was the sensational debut in 2014 at the Concertgebouw, with works by Nono, Haydn, Stravinsky and Mozart, in which Hannigan both sang andconducted as if she had been doing that all her life. In reality she […]...

For its new production ‘Face of the moon’ music collective LUDWIG programmed a concert consisting of pure night music. “An ‘address book’ orchestra”, music collective LUDWIG was called mockingly at their foundation in 2011. Some 8 years, several jubilant reviews and a Grammy Award later, their project-orientated, hyper flexible way of working has proven itself […]...

“Beware, Merlijn,“ music critic Merlijn Kerkhof reminds himself upon entering the concert hall, “the collective admiration for Barbara Hannigan is showing traits of a hype.” He is on guard and ready for some critical notes. But then he falls for Barbara Hannigan completely, even more so: at the end of the concert he is totally […]...

This is the third time a review appears in the Volkskrant about the collaboration of Barbara Hannigan and the Ludwig orchestra. And it is also the third time that over this review 5 stars appear. Who hoped to for once find a nice critical note about phenomenon Hannigan, the Canadian soprano who turned into a […]...

The Metropole Orchestra continuing independently, the Radio Chamber Philharmonie dissolved – yes the subvention cuts truly did damage with the radio orchestras in Hilversum. But musicians didn’t accept defeat and created their own ensemble: LUDWIG. The group presented itself for the first time in the ‘Fridays at Vredenburg’ series, ironically a series presented by the […]...