DELUXE HAMBURG
Hamburg’ s newest landmark
Is all the hype surrounding the opening of the new Elbphilharmonie justified? Holger Jacobs attended the much written-about opening concert for his blog Kultur24-berlin. de. Here are his impressions for DELUXE.
D ear fellow art lovers, the hype surrounding the opening of the new Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg took even those involved by surprise. But is it justified? I was of course overjoyed to get my hands on one of the few tickets available for the premiere. First impressions as you approach the building are that it is magnificent. At 110 metres, the 23-storey building towers high, very high above the Elbe, and its sheer size alone makes it somewhat overwhelming. At the same time the viewer is struck by the 2,200 shimmering panes of the upper glass structure that throughout the day reflect the sky and surrounding buildings. My ticket arrived with precise instructions: admission from 5.30 to 7.15pm. Concert begins 8pm. A 15-minute interval after about 60 minutes. At the end of the concert, at 10pm, a reception with drinks and a buffet in the foyers on the 12th and 13th floors. Entering the main auditorium reveals a number of surprises. At first it appears smaller than expected because its horizontal dimensions are not that large. But it slopes upwards very steeply, by 25 metres. Similar to the Berlin Philharmonie, the auditorium is arranged in‘ vineyard’-style terraces around the orchestra. Every sound is crisp and clear.
And the acoustics particularly excel when individual singers and musicians perform from the higher balconies, like the oboe in Benjamin Britten’ s‘ Pan’ right at the beginning, or when the countertenor Philippe Jaroussky performed with the harpist Margret Köll from the third tier. And when soprano Hanna-Elisabeth Müller sang the‘ Ode to Joy’, the sound of her voice carried beautifully. Originally it was due to be sung by Anja Hateros from Munich, but when she pulled out she was replaced by Camilla Tilling from Sweden. When she fell ill shortly before the premiere, another singer had to be found within 48 hours. Step forward the young Hanna-Elisabeth Müller( born 1985). Winner of the Best Newcomer prize in 2014, she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival under Christian Thielemann in that same year. Her voice lifted the whole auditorium: she was the highlight of the evening. All in all it was a wonderful experience and an evening I will remember forever. In short, I found that what makes a concert in our Elbphilharmonie such a unique and memorable experience is not just the auditorium or its acoustics, nor the glass structure or the plaza on the 8th floor with its amazing views of the harbour and city – no, it is the building in its entirety, with everything that goes with it. translation: Celia MooDy
Holger Jacobs
History 2001- 2016
Alexander Gérard and his wife Jana Marko conceive the idea of turning Kaispeicher A, an old warehouse in the port of Hamburg, into a concert hall. Gérard takes it to a former university friend, Pierre Herzog, a partner in Herzog & de Meuron, probably the most famous architectural practice in the world. He comes up with the initial proposal of putting a glass structure on top of the warehouse. The plaza on the 8th floor opens on 4th November 2016.
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