CSO in Hamburg´s new concert hall

[tubeast]

Hello fellow TubeNetters,

last weekend, the CSO has performed in the recently opened brandnew concert hall "Hamburger Elbphilharmonie".
That hall and its opening ceremony has been flooding German media for few main reasons:

- its HUGE budget (about 870.000.000 €, which is roughly 1100% of the originally proposed amount).
- the history of its construction, including 1 year of construction site shutdown.
- the technical details that contributed to its acoustical, architectural, and budgetarian properties.
- incredible expectations in those properties and undivided praise thereof, stated by people who really can´t afford to assess otherwise

So, have rumors about that CSO performance spread to TNFJ yet ?
Is the hall as awesome yet unforgiving as people say ?
Anything interesting to tell about infrastructure for musicians ? (Practise facilities ? Is the canteen any good ? Any new dents to the YORK ?)

[gwwilk]

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[tubapix]

You piqued my interest, and I found this tour via quadcopters! WOW!!!

That is a cool tour! Remember to use the space bar to get the quick tour also!

[Three Valves]

Controversy

The project was criticized because of its cost overruns.[15][16] However, upon completion, Der Spiegel in a comparative analysis suggested that the overrun was relatively "modest" compared to some other international mega-projects.[17]

So you see, it actually SAVED them money!!

[hubert]

I looked at different programmes and presentations on TV around the opening date.
Indeed, it was a project with a lot of difficulties and controversies. It lasted too long, the budget was exceeded enormously (on the other hand, this left enough time too tap new sources of finance over the years.....) and at least 1 mayor lost his job because of this project.
But the result looks awesome. The building is full of technical tours de force, I have never seen or heard of. E.g. the main hall has 2 "skins" with a kind of "air cushion" in between. The inner "skin" rest on more than 300 enormous springs within the outer "skin". Thus any sound and roaring of the harbour is prevented to permeate into the hall. All light bulbs are of a special design and apparently there could be found only one glasswork (in Czechia), which had the courage and knowledge to blow all the bulbs. A lot of the outside windows have unique bent shapes and were made in Italy at 1 of 2 companies in the world that are able to accomplish a job like that. The shots of the testing of the windows with air speed of 300 km/hr and enormous water jets were fun to look at. And as the main element for creating superb acoustics, the Japanes "master of acoustics" Toyota developped the so called white skin of the concert hall. The material is a mixture of plaster of Paris with 20% paper pulp. In this material was carved a relief of small "half shells" ,each of which shows a few little carved waves inside. Apparently this stimulates the distribution of sound.
These are only a few details that impressed me, when looking at a documentary about the building.
From the opening concert on TV I got the impression, that the acoustics are wonderful. Every detail was audible, while the sound was mild, round and pleasant. So, at the end I was left with intentions to make a trip to Hamburg one day to learn, whether the real thing can impress the listener as much as the pictures and the sound I got through my TV.
Hubert

[barry grrr-ero]

That's interesting, because Kent Nagano conducts both of the primary orchestras that use (will use) those two halls: L'Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal (OSM) and the Philharmoniker Hamburg.

I've always thought Nagano was pretty good, but not THAT good. I used to see him conduct modern works with the Berkeley Symphony.

[bort]

LOL...a billion bucks.

At least they get something new out of the deal. Last time I heard, the renovations to Avery Fisher (er... David Geffen...) Hall were going to cost around $500 million.

[hubert]

And as well it is home to the NDR Symphonie Orchester under Thomas Hengelbrock (which performed at the opening night).
Hubert