Thursday 15 January 2015

Paris Philharmonie

Last time I was guest editor I did a story about the new Paris concert hall. Called the "Philharmonie" its construction has been anything but harmonious. Taking 14 years to come to fruition the new home of Paris classical concerts opened last night with a concert of French music (Ravel, Fauré et al) with an invited audience including President Hollande. The hall has cost three times its estimate and the architect Jean Nouvel has washed his hands of the project, claiming that its opening was being rushed and the building was not completed to his specification.
Set in an unfashionable part of town there are concerns that the "bobo" patrons of the art deco Salle Pleyel will be unwilling to make the journey around the perif, If they do apparently they will have the unusual pleasure of comfortable seats. And none of the 2400  seats is more than 32 metres from the conductor. Internally the building is complete and offers a number of auditoria, so even if it does look like a rusty spaceship dumped by the peripherique it provides Paris with something it lacked, a world class concert hall.
comments to taglines82@gmail.com