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The bold beauty: Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie celebrates its fifth birthday

2022-01-13T10:23:03.287Z


The bold beauty: Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie celebrates its fifth birthday Created: 01/13/2022, 11:17 AM From: Markus Thiel In front of the full rows, the birthday was celebrated on Wednesday evening - "only" with a concert, the planned party had to be canceled. © Daniel Dittus Confident despite Corona: The Hamburg Elbphilharmonie is celebrating its fifth birthday and its success story. Without


The bold beauty: Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie celebrates its fifth birthday

Created: 01/13/2022, 11:17 AM

From: Markus Thiel

In front of the full rows, the birthday was celebrated on Wednesday evening - "only" with a concert, the planned party had to be canceled.

© Daniel Dittus

Confident despite Corona: The Hamburg Elbphilharmonie is celebrating its fifth birthday and its success story.

Without a party break, but with a gala concert in which only modern music can be heard.

Real professionals do it without.

Hold your ticket in the scanner below at the height of the harbor.

Present the Corona app to the friendly staff ("Moin, moin!").

Ride unmoved up the 80 meter long, boldly curved escalator.

In the plaza, leave the spectacular view of the harbor on the right.

And on floor eleven strive to go to “Cloakroom South” or “North” in order to find your place up one flight of stairs: on level twelve things really start here.

And the others?

Threatening to lose your footing on the escalator with a steady glance at the cell phone.

Snap forwards, backwards, yourself, the chips glow.

Everything needs to be captured, right up to posing on the draughty terrace.

And only these intricately nooks and crannies!

And then the hall!

Music?

Right, there was something else.

Elbphilharmonie: 100 percent occupancy allowed

The latter group, those “only” in love with the house, is apparently becoming smaller.

But the Elbphilharmonie is far from the norm.

A bold beauty who still likes to be marveled at - although she is "only" a small, somewhat conceited snot nose.

Fifth birthday, time for a gala concert.

Slimmed down for known reasons.

The light and laser show by the artist duo Drift, which is intended for outside, is only available in April and there is no free sparkling wine with canapés that evening.

But you sit seat to seat. 100 percent occupancy allowed, as a guest from Bavaria you look and hear with heartache into the sparkling terrace: This is what applause sounds like in the full hall.

In a row with Neuschwanstein and the Brandenburg Gate

Corona may have slowed demand, the hype about the house continues.

So much so that you can give visitors food that they spurn elsewhere.

Five years ago, when Chancellor Angela Merkel and Federal President Joachim Gauck had to brave the winter storm, showed up late in Hafencity and the concert was postponed by half an hour, there was a program-promenade mix with the end of Beethoven's inevitable ninth.

And now?

Everything from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Nothing classic, nothing romantic.

As an encore, pianist Kirill Gerstein even plays a piece by Gyorgy Ligeti, who lived in Hamburg for a long time.

The Elbphilharmonie: a Hamburg "love story"

“It's unusual for a classical gala concert, but not for the Elbphilharmonie,” says Artistic Director Christoph Lieben-Seutter in his celebratory speech. Mayor Peter Tschentscher reads something similar from the manuscript: "Hamburg is considered the gateway to the world, the Elbphilharmonie has become a gateway to Hamburg." Seven hours earlier, at the press conference in the Small Hall, there was a pat on the shoulder in English, with Senator for Culture Carsten Brosda parling most fluently . The Elbphilharmonie gives an idea of ​​what Germany could be in the future. So far, the country has only been identified with the Brandenburg Gate or Neuschwanstein, with no monument from the nation's democratic period. Thanks to the Hamburg “love story”, that is also different now.

Alan Gilbert, chief conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, appropriately praises the democratic architecture. It's true: everyone is sitting around the music, a huge sound campfire. Only the critics really care that the seats behind the orchestra are acoustically contestable. Everyone else enjoys the view of the conductor - and mostly of the hall. Above all, there is plenty of space for acoustic experiments. To the fanfare “Tromba Lontana” by John Adams, two trumpeters send out their steely calls from above. At “Wing on Wing” by Esa-Pekka Salonen, conducting composer and even present at the gala concert, Anu and Piia Komsi walk on the different levels to mix stratospheric soprano vocalises shortly before the ultrasound in the giant orchestra.

Alan Gilbert and his NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra performed exclusively modern music.

© Sophie Wolter

In general, the cast: The Elphi Monumentales is still exceptionally good.

The sharp acoustics help that groups and solos can be easily located.

The higher it goes in the pitch register, the cooler and more transparent it becomes up to the eardrum drilling.

That has improved since the opening and, as other halls of acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, who works in Hamburg, show, will continue to calm down.

What remains: Audience noises are almost as present as the music.

Alan Gilbert has to wait twice before starting a piece.

But at least here Corona helps, hardly anyone dares to cough anymore.

Nobody has to worry about the festival program. Neither before Salonen's sound material collection, nor before the pounding “Short Ride in a Fast Machine” by Adams, nor before the constantly excited piano concerto by Thomas Adès. There are works with which modernity seems to bump into the audience: Hey, you can really like me. This is also the case the day before, at the concert of the Philharmonic State Orchestra. The mass work “Arche” by Jörg Widmann, premiered in 2017 during the opening week, had to be canceled. Too many people involved. Instead, the composer is represented with other works, including three “shadow dances” for solo clarinet, played by himself and tapped on the instrument. After the break, Kent Nagano will conduct Beethoven's Eighth. And such a finely honed oneThe former General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera would never have been expected to have a bristly elegant interpretation.

Elbphilharmonie: the celebration continues

The Elbphilharmonie is to be celebrated for a while.

One hardly likes to talk about Corona, not at all about the costs.

And it's also true: Despite the scandals, the 866 million euros are not badly invested.

Over 3.3 million visitors in the hall since 2017, even 15 million in the plaza, around 2500 concerts despite lockdowns, all of that speaks for itself.

What to learn from the Elphi: how culture can become the main thing in a city.

And how to better manage projects that get out of hand in the future.

A role model for good and bad days. Stepping down does not apply. Anyone who speaks to those responsible registers a smile behind their hand in the direction of Bavaria. You, it is blasphemed, took 15 years to find a piece of land for the concert hall. A success story that is unprecedented in every respect. Covid is currently cutting everything back towards normal. Black market prices of several thousand euros no longer have to be paid. Elphi is now building on a healthy subscriber base from the city and the surrounding area. And there is much to suggest that it is precisely here that new concert forms and structures can be tried out. Forecasts? Probably only the best. The house answers that with a pretty poster campaign showing children's photos of celebrities. "Hamburg legends know:The fifth birthday is just the beginning. "

Source: merkur

All life articles on 2022-01-13

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