Europe's largest city: five world-class orchestras and not a decent hall among them

Royal Albert Hall, home of the Proms (1871)
Capacity: over 5,500--suitable for a symphony?

At the turn of the twentieth century, London boasted three orchestras (note that most U.S. cities are lucky to have one): the Covent Garden, Queen's Hall, and the Philharmonic Society, the organization that commissioned Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.  Each would eventually morph into other ensembles.  The driving factor behind symphonic music-making in the city would be conductor Sir Thomas Beecham.

Edward Elgar at the helm of the LSO, Queen's Hall

The London Symphony, founded in 1904, was established by disgruntled players from Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orchestra, who objected to what they deemed unfair labor practices.  The LSO has been built as a cooperative ensemble, wherein the players are managers and owners (similar to practices in Berlin, Vienna, and other cities).  The orchestra initially performed at Queen's Hall.  During the First War, large donations from Thomas Beecham kept the orchestra afloat.  Although the cooperative would long court Beecham as a permanent conductor, he refused to work for an ensemble with which he would not have sole control.

The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) founded its own orchestra in 1930 as the first permanent salaried orchestra in London (it is also the only of London's major ensembles that is not self-governed).  With Adrian Boult as its founding conductor (Beecham also spurned the BBC), the orchestra has survived a "fallow period" for four decades beginning around 1950, during which time the orchestra was unable to attract the talent drawn to the other London ensembles.  With the arrival of Andrew Davis the orchestra has performed an amazing turnaround and has only recently regained its world status.

The London Philharmonic, founded by (none other than) Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932, readily took on London's musical establishment.  The founders' ambition was to build an orchestra the equal of any European or American rival. Between 1932 and the Second World War the LPO was widely judged to have succeeded in this regard.

The unrecognizable remains of Queen's Hall.

Of course, the Second World War wrecked havoc on London's cultural scene and the famed Queen's Hall was destroyed during the Blitz.  It was not rebuilt.

Post-war London has seen two more orchestras pop up (the Royal Philharmonic--yet another Beecham ensemble--and the Philharmonia).  The addition of rebuilt or newly constructed concert halls should have provided happy homes for the five major orchestras as well as the numerous chamber orchestras dotting the landscape.  Unfortunately....

The Barbican Centre, reportedly Europe's largest arts complex, houses both the LSO and the BBC Symphony.  Its conglomeration of brutalist structures, in an aerial view below, was voted "London's ugliest building" in a 2003 poll.

The Barbican--huh?

And it's no better once you stumble through the doors (don't you love those colors?).

The LPO has found its way to the Royal Festival Hall, a 1950's monstrosity.

And one has to wonder what Queen Elizabeth thinks of the hall that bears her name.  It might just challenge the Barbican in ugliness.

Fit for Her Highness?  I think not.

So many orchestras.  So many concert halls.  And none of the latter worthy of the former...Perhaps Sir Simon Rattle will come riding in on a white horse (after his announced departure from the Berlin Phil following the 2018 season) and somehow save the day.  Maybe, just one day, London could get something like this ("the hall that Simon built" in Birmingham):

Them Brits sure like red!

TOMORROW:  The boondoggle of boondoggles:  Avery Fischer Hall, or whatever they're going to call it.

The hall that would challenge the tried and true...

Among the cities ravaged by the Second World War, few suffered the devastating destruction wrought upon the city of Berlin (although one can certainly not discount the siege of Leningrad and others).  Beginning with Hitler's own burning of the Reichstag in 1933 and not ending until 12 years later, the tragedy of the war would be compounded by another war, an idealogical one between the pro-democracy West and the Communist Soviet Union.

The once-beautiful city lay in ruins and would remain much that way until the fall of Communism and the reunification of 1989.

A dead soldier amidst the scoured Brandenburg gate.

Only scars remain of the once beautiful boulevard, Unter der Linden

Not only would the city take decades to fully recover (one might argue that it is still an on-going process), its cultural institutions were also in disarray.  Even though the lofty Berlin Philharmonic would continue to offer performances during the war, its conductor, Wilhelm Furtwangler, would find himself the target of the "de-Nazification" efforts of the Post-War allies.  He was eventually cleared and resumed his position, although not until 1952.

The long-time concert hall of the Philharmonic, now known as the late (old) Philharmonie, was actually an old skating rink repurposed for its use at the end of the nineteenth century.  It was located on Bern Strasse and would remain in use until the bombing on January 30, 1944.  The hall resembled the classic "shoebox" style reminiscent of the great halls of Vienna (Musikverein), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), and Boston's Symphony Hall.

The classic interior of the Alte Philharmonie, Berlin

Following the war, the Philharmonic, which Furtwangler had built into a world-class virtuoso ensemble, lived a rather nomadic existence, often performing in the art deco Titania Palast and recording at the Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Dahlem.

Furtwangler rehearses in the Titania Palast

A performance at the Jesus-Christos-Kirche, Dahlem.

By 1957, the need for a new hall  built expressly for the orchestra was obvious.  The new Philharmonie had to be an edifice worthy of its orchestra, and the design put forward by architect Hans Scharoun included one of the most stunning interiors yet conceived.  It's "vineyard" style of seating--wherein the audience actually surrounds the ensemble, has become particularly popular, and it has been emulated by modern halls, including Sydney Opera House (1973), Denver's Boettcher Concert Hall (1978), the Gewandhaus in Leipzig (1981), Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (2003), and the recently completed Philharmonie de Paris.

The Berlin Philharmonie

But, to me, one thing is missing: that of an exterior aesthetic appeal.  Unlike the hall's astonishing interior design (and, apparently, outstanding acoustics), the exterior is tackiness personified, resembling a cross between the Paris "spaceship" and a 1960s mobile home facade.  Examining the entrance does not (again) reveal this to be a place of invitation.  Again, I'm old-fashioned, I guess.

UPDATE:  Rebuilding Germany:

Stadtschloss Berlin, under reconstruction

Schauspielhaus, Berlin (reopened 1984)

Old Gewandhaus, Leipzig

A proclamation of brutalism:  the New Gewandhaus
Guess you can't get everything right...

The remains of Dresden, February 1945

Semper Oper, Dresden

A bold statement or just another ugly building

The news from Paris--the vicious attack on Charlie Hebdo--that continues to play out in cities across the globe is indicative of how deeply a city--and a nation--can be affected by global terrorism.  But, buried in the headlines is another event: the opening of a new concert hall on the outskirts of the city. Reviews are mixed.

Philharmonie de Paris: Jean Nouvel's €390m spaceship crash-lands in France  Oliver Wainwright, the Guardian

You mean it looks like this?

Orchestre de Paris, Philharmonie de Paris, review: 'elegant eclecticism'

Ivan Hewett, the Telegraph

Concert-Hall Discord in Paris

J. S. Marcus, Wall Street Journal

Nouvel boycotts opening of own Philharmonie de Paris

Colin Marrs, Architects Journal

This is the building in question, the Philharmonie de Paris:

That damn Louvre Pyramid...

This monstrosity joins the Parisian landscape which now includes:

AND the grotesque Opera Bastille

The specs on the new hall are as appalling as its architecture.

• Cost:  Estimate--170M Euros; Actual--381M Euros.  That's $488 M USD
• Construction overrun:  two years late

Even the project's architect is more than a bit upset:

Running two years late and three times over its original budget, the €390m concert hall was still surrounded by an army of workmen fanatically fixing cladding panels to the facade when the conductor took to his dais on Wednesday evening. But Nouvel was conspicuously absent. “The architecture is martyred, the details sabotaged,” he wrote in a blistering editorial in Le Monde that day, describing the finished result as a kind of architecture “that oscillates between counterfeiting and tampering”.  Colin Marrs

Marrs goes on to write, If it is a bewildering arrival in the city, it finds solace here among a zoo of other architectural misfits. The Parc de la Villette is the work of Bernard Tschumi, French godfather of the punkish deconstructivist style, whose bright red follies dot a landscape punctuated by a plethora of strange experiments from the 80s and 90s. There is a mirrored geodesic dome and a hangar-like science museum, a tensile rubbery performance arena and an undulating conservatoire – and, right next to the Philharmonie, the wild postmodern assemblage of Christian de Portzamparc’s Cité de la Musique, already home to a 1,000-seat concert hall.

Many commentators insist that, like other structures within the French capital, the Philharmonie will "grow on us (and them)",  given the time.  Call me old-fashioned, but the outside is as important as whatever happens inside, for the entire space needs to be inviting, something this cash-landed spaceship will never be.

TOMORROW:  Berlin and other German architectural atrocities....

If you build it, will they come?

Time for an eye examination.  I've been through several of those in the past year, what with two (extremely successful!) cataract surgeries.  Ready to start?

E

Ok, so which one is better:  number one?

Or number two?

Number three?

Or number four?

Number five?

Or number six?

Number seven?

Or number eight?

Number nine?

Or number ten?

Um......wait a minute.....

"An orchestra that sounds like itself"

I have written in the past of the increasing homogeneity among orchestras worldwide.  Of course, much of this is due to Music Directors on task only 8-10 weeks of a season and a plethora of podium guests each bringing an individual sound ideal and interpretation to the works at hand.  No longer is a Frederick Stock, George Szell, or Eugene Ormandy (among others) on hand for the majority of his orchestra's rehearsals and performances. Mostly, this has resulted in nearly every major orchestra sounding the same, with the Vienna Philharmonic (largely because of the different instruments employed therein) being a possible exception.

I have also lamented the fact that American orchestras seriously ignore the music of their own countrymen, particularly on tour.  In all honesty, what Russian would want to hear the NY Phil play Tchaikovsky or Shostakovich?

Jiri Belohlavek

Another, less heralded orchestra has maintained very close to its roots, as Zachary Wolfe has noted in a recent commentary in the NY Times.  That orchestra is the Czech Philharmonic, once again under the baton of Jiri Belohlavek (the orchestra performs today at Carnegie Hall and commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution tomorrow at Washington's National Cathedral).  Wolfe is spot on in his assessment of this ensemble:

The tour is an opportunity for audiences here to experience a rarity these days: an orchestra that sounds like itself. The internationalization of classical music over the past few decades has resulted in more versatile ensembles but also more homogeneity.

“The key is in the strings, which are really warm and down to earth,” [concertmaster Josef Spacek] said by phone. “Because we Czechs came from a sort of peasant lifestyle, there is a great sense for folk tunes. Smetana, Dvorak — they really derive their music from simple tunes from the countryside.”

Having heard this wonderful ensemble twice (in Chicago and in Prague itself), I could not agree more.

Wolfe goes on to write:

Part of the reason the orchestra’s sound has endured is its intimate home, Dvorak Hall in the Rudolfinum in Prague, which rewards sonic richness. And part is simple numbers: According to Mr. Spacek, just two out of the 118 players are not Czech. “It’s not because we don’t allow foreign people to apply,” he insisted with a laugh. “But we have a huge overload of musicians coming from the Czech Republic,” a country of 10 million with more than a dozen conservatories.

The Rudolfinum, Prague

Also at home, the orchestra is bucking the trend--musically and financially--that we're seeing on this side of the pond.  Since 2000, musician salaries (while still quite low) have increased 60% and concerts--now offered three times/program instead of two--are playing to 90% houses, compared to around 65% not so long ago.

The Czech Phil's tour schedule appears below (N.B. dates read day/month/year).

4. 11. 2014 / COSTA MESA, California

• L. JANÁČEK: Taras Bulba
• F. LISZT: Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major
• A. DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 "From the New World"

5. 11. 2014 / NORTHRIDGE, California

• A. DVOŘÁK: Stabat Mater op. 58

6. 11. 2014 / LA JOLLA /SAN DIEGO, California

• L. JANÁČEK: Taras Bulba
• F. LISZT: Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major
• A. DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 "From the New World"

8. 11. 2014 / DAVIS, California

• B. SMETANA: From Bohemia's woods and fields, Šárka - symphonic poems from "My Country"
• F. LISZT: Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major
• A. DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 "From the New World"

9. 11. 2014 / BERKELEY, California

• A. DVOŘÁK: Stabat Mater op. 58

10. 11. 2014 / SANTA BARBARA, California

• L. JANÁČEK: Taras Bulba
• F. LISZT: Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major
• A. DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 "From the New World"

13. 11. 2014 / ANNAPOLIS, Maryland

• B. SMETANA: From Bohemia's woods and fields, Šárka - symphonic poems from "My Country"
• J. SUK: Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 24
• A. DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 "From the New World"

14. 11. 2014 / FAIRFAX, Virginia (Washington D.C.)

• L. JANÁČEK: Taras Bulba
• F. LISZT: Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major
• A. DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 "From the New World"

15. 11. 2014 / PURCHASE, New York

• L. JANÁČEK: Taras Bulba
• F. LISZT: Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major
• A. DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 "From the New World"

16. 11. 2014 / NEW YORK, New York / Carnegie Hall

• L. JANÁČEK: Taras Bulba
• F. LISZT: Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major
• A. DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 "From the New World"

17. 11. 2014 / WASHINGTON, Washington D.C. / National Cathedral

- Concert commemorating 25th anniversary of the Velvet revolution

• B. SMETANA: Vltava, symphonic poem from "My Country"
• A. DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 "From the New World"

Hmmm. No apologies here:  everything is Czech except for that Liszt concerto. They're playing what they know best, and why not?  While I'd rather hear Dvorak's Seventh any day, it's interesting that the Ninth is being performed. The manuscript of the same pays a five day visit to New York's Czech Center, the first time it has returned to the "New World" since the composer took it "home" in 1895.

Postponed until?

Still an empty hall in Atlanta...

A cursory glance at the Atlanta Symphony website indicates that concerts are "postponed through November 8."  Since there has been little to no public announcement of movement between management and the Player's Association, one is left to assume that another notice is in order (especially since November 8 is this Saturday).

As my previous post posited the view that management was more or less dragging its feet (to save even more cash?) when the parties seemed so close to an agreement.  With a continuation of that tactic, it's painfully obvious that the management at the WAC has any idea of the mechanics of orchestra operation.  Does Ms. Hepner (chief of the Woodruff Arts Center) think that the orchestra can just show up and play a gig with little to no notice?

For the uninformed, this is Virginia Hepner.  She's a banker.  (Surprise!)

So many variables some into play:

• The availability of the (meager) 77 musicians left on the roster.  How many have other commitments due to lack of movement on the lockout?

• For that matter, the availability of soloists who may have accepted other guaranteed dates, given that the ASO has been in such turmoil.

• And what of those fussy rehearsals?  It takes an ensemble some time to jell even after a summer hiatus; it could be weeks now, given the fact that the members of the ASO have had so much unexpected time away from each other.

The time has come for Hepner and Co. to step up (and at least update the website).  Even if an agreement--undoubtedly to the detriment of the players--were signed at this precise moment, one cannot predict when the ASO can be reassembled and become concert-ready.  One thing is certain:  the remaining players will work harder toward that goal than management has demonstrated during the disastrous past few months.

So....what the hell is up with the WAC?

Folding the tents....

Things have been relatively quiet on the Atlanta front, although there has been some news, and--as always--it's not good.  Management "negotiators" walked away from the table just as it seemed that the impasse was near its conclusion.  The federal mediators (in disgust, I am sure) have left town, and the players of the Atlanta Symphony are left twisting in the wind.

From all that outside observers can surmise, the Player's Association has caved on their last (and many deem most significant) sticking point.  The complement of players--once at 95--is now a mere 77, although the 2012 contract guarantees 88.  WAC and the ASO management have simply decided not to fill the vacancies that have occurred since the lockout, be it due to attrition or players simply looking elsewhere for work.  A number of other orchestras, including Dallas and Chicago, have benefitted.

The future Atlanta Symphony?

But now the players have given up on their insistence that they field a full orchestra.  Simply put, one cannot perform a Mahler symphony with 77 players.  In certain works, 95 is a stretch and often requires additional substitute personnel.  But given in they have.  And the reaction from Virginia Hepner and her management cronies at the WAC?  Silence....that same deafening silence that has accompanied this debacle since the beginning.

Here's what the players have given up:

• Any salary guarantees whatsoever.  Their modest proposal would have increased levels (which were slashed 15.4% in 2012) something a bit over five percent (total!) through 2018.  As it sits now, the orchestra will spend millions less in 2018 than it did in 2012.
• Health care:  the players accepted a higher deductible plan, again saving management a figure attuned to $500,000 annually.
• Work rules:  management will put forth its "best effort" to raise the orchestra complement to 88 by the close of the 2018 season.  Of course, anyone close to this lockout has to doubt the veracity coming out of the mouths of anyone having to do with the WAC or ASO management.

So.....since the players have folded the tents and given in on every negotiating point, what the hell is management waiting for?  These players have been without paychecks since early September and without healthcare (unless out of their own pockets) since October 1.  Players who won auditions since the last season ended have yet to play a note.

Ms. Hepner and friends:  the world is waiting for the sunrise and for the return of the Atlanta Symphony.  What's taking so long?