The New York Times GEORGE LOOMIS 28/08/2014 Philharmonie de Paris Prepares to Open Amid Controvers
An artist’s rendering of the interior of the new Philharmonie de Paris, which is done in the so-called vineyard style, with tiers of seats and balconies surrounding the stage. Credit Philharmonie de Paris – Arte Factory PARIS
— Following a long and difficult gestation that is not entirely over,
La Philharmonie de Paris is set to open in January 2015. If all goes
according to plan, Paris will have one of the finest — and, with a price
tag of €381 million, or $505 million, one of the most costly — concert
halls anywhere in the world.
The
Orchestre de Paris, now housed at the venerable Salle Pleyel in central
Paris, will be its resident orchestra, but programming will also
include a wide array of guest organizations and solo artists.
“It
is unbelievable,” said the conductor William Christie, whose Baroque
ensemble Les Arts Florissants will also move to the Philharmonie. “I’ve
never seen another project like it. It’s reminiscent of the creation of
Lincoln Center, or maybe some of the recent Chinese projects.”
Controversy
has dogged the Philharmonie from the beginning. Cost overruns, its
relatively remote location, issues concerning artistic decision-making
and even whether Paris really needed a new concert hall are some of the
things people are talking about.
The Orchestre de Paris, conducted by Paavo Järvi, standing, will make its new home at the Philharmonie. Credit Jean-Baptiste Pellerin/Orchestre de Paris
There
is little disagreement, however, about the spectacular nature of the
building designed by the architect Jean Nouvel, whose previous work has
included concert halls in Lucerne, Switzerland, and Copenhagen and the
redesigned Lyon opera house. The extravagant aluminum structure looks
like a collection of randomly stacked slabs, with significant space
between them and a vertical slab cutting through the others.
The
2,400-seat auditorium reflects the influence of Berlin’s concert hall,
also called the Philharmonie, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los
Angeles. All three are in the so-called vineyard style, with tiers of
seats and balconies surrounding the stage in the manner of a vineyard on
a slope. This configuration has become popular because it allows for
unobstructed sight lines and promotes audience involvement by lessening
the distance between the conductor and those seated farthest away, as
compared to the conventional rectangular, or shoebox, design.
In
the Philharmonie, the distance between the conductor and those farthest
away will be 32 meters, or 105 feet, compared with 47 meters for the
Salle Pleyel, which has 500 fewer seats.
The
new hall will also feature modular seating that can be reconfigured in
function of the artists or the works being presented. For example, if a
concert features a singer, the stage can be positioned so that it is
adjacent to a wall, thereby eliminating seats that would give a view of
the singer’s back.
The
idea of a new Paris concert hall was first floated in the 1970s. The
administration of President François Mitterrand moved ahead with its
“Grands Projets,” or modern monuments for Paris, during the 1980s — a
program that included the creation of the Parc de la Villette complex,
which encompasses the music museum and small concert hall of the Cité de
la Musique. But in the end the construction of a new opera house, the
Opéra Bastille, took priority over a large concert hall, and the
decision to move ahead with the Philharmonie was made only in 2006.
Construction
began in 2010, with costs to be shared by the French government (45
percent), the city of Paris (45 percent) and the regional council of the
Île-de-France (10 percent).
The
imposition of austerity measures by the French government in 2011
caused a number of cultural projects to be called off, but work on the
Philharmonie had progressed to an extent that cancellation was ruled
out: It had become, in effect, too big to derail. Construction was
interrupted because of delays in government funding, which created added
costs.
The mounting expenditures “have worried some and infuriated others,” Mr. Christie said.
But
according to Laurent Bayle, president of the Philharmonie and director
of the Cité de la Musique, the extent of cost overruns has been
exaggerated. Some reports have pointed out that the final cost will be
nearly three times the original estimate of €130 million, but Mr. Bayle
said that lower figure represented essentially the estimated physical
cost of the building and excluded other categories of expenses, such as
fees and equipment. These other expenses, which add up to approximately
€100 million, are reflected in the €381 million total. Inflation and
costs of complying with environmental and energy requirements also
increased the final tally, he said.
Questions
have also been raised about the decision to put the new hall in Parc de
la Villette. The location offered open land for such a big project as
well as proximity to the Cité de la Musique and the Paris Conservatoire,
which is also located there. But the complex is in Paris’s somewhat
gritty 19th Arrondissement, at the northeastern edge of the city just
inside the Boulevard Périphérique, or ring road.
Commentators
have wondered whether Parisian classical-music lovers, who are
accustomed to attending concerts in posher and more convenient locations
such as the Salle Pleyel and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, will
venture that far afield. The Philharmonie will have parking spaces for
more than 600 automobiles, though the capacity of the hall is four times
that. A trip on the Métro, or subway, can easily take 45 minutes from
central Paris.
Far
from regarding the location as a disadvantage, Mr. Bayle sees it as an
asset in helping to cultivate a new audience for classical music —
which, in Paris as everywhere, is graying. Mr. Bayle has said he wants
to do away with what he characterizes as today’s musical split:
classical music for senior citizens and the well-off, popular music for
the young. He points out that while 2.5 million people live in
relatively well-to-do Paris, 11 million people live outside of the city
in the more modest suburbs — yet these suburban dwellers make up only
about 20 percent to 30 percent of the audience at a typical classical
music concert.
“It is essential that we draw these people in,” Mr. Bayle said.
The
programming for the Philharmonie’s first six months of operation, from
January to June 2015, reflects that desire. Of 270 concerts, more than
half, or 150, are classical. But the Philharmonie will also reach out to
its new neighbors with 70 concerts embracing pop, jazz and world music.
There will also be 50 family and young people’s concerts, primarily on
weekends. The annual budget is expected to be €32 million, of which €9
million each will come from the French government and the city of Paris
and €14 million from ticket sales and private contributors and sponsors.
The
Philharmonie will reach out in another sense as well. Ticket prices are
expected to be approximately 15 percent less expensive than for
comparable events at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées or the Salle Pleyel,
each of which has a capacity of several hundred fewer seats than the
Philharmonie.
Paavo
Järvi, music director of the Orchestre de Paris, is quick to point out
that the orchestra will not “dumb down” its repertoire to fill seats. “I
am determined to have programming that is artistically interesting and
challenging, not just popular works, even if the box office suffers
somewhat,” he said by telephone in July.
The
orchestra has made important strides under Mr. Järvi, who took over in
2010. Mr. Bayle mentions the acclaim it won at last summer’s
Aix-en-Provence Festival playing Strauss’s “Elektra” in the late Patrice
Chéreau’s last opera production. French orchestras are famous for their
wind sections, and the Orchestre’s is particularly strong. The
musicians are reputed to have an excellent working relationship with Mr.
Järvi — better, it is said, than with the previous music director,
Christoph Eschenbach.
The
orchestra has traditionally had a Germanic orientation under conductors
such as Herbert von Karajan, Georg Solti and Christoph von Dohnanyi.
Mr. Järvi has programmed more French music, which has also lifted the
spirits of this French orchestra. “Players have thanked me for bringing
back French repertoire,” he said.
On
Aug. 26, Mr Järvi announced that he would not renew his contract with
the Orchestre when it expires at the end of summer 2016 to devote more
time to the NHK Symphony Orchestra, of which he becomes music director
in October 2015. He will remain music director of the Deutsche
Kammerphilharmonie in Bremen, Germany.
Reached
by his agent in Florida, where he is vacationing with his family, Mr.
Järvi said by email that his comments about the Philharmonie and his
decision not to renew his contract as music director “are completely
separate issues.” In any case, his decision bars the prospect that the
Orchestre, which has had a relatively high turnover rate of music
directors, could have had a long-term relationship with a conductor
under whom it has prospered.
The
opening of the Philharmonie will have ramifications for Paris’s other
concert venues, most notably the Salle Pleyel, the current home of the
Orchestre de Paris. The much-admired hall, built in the 1920s in Art
Deco style and renovated in 2004-2006, will no longer program classical
music once the Orchestre moves to its new home.
As
Mr. Bayle explained it, Salle Pleyel was acquired from its private
owner to become part of the Cité de la Musique and as such falls under
Mr. Bayle’s domain. Because of the expense of the Philharmonie, the
government financed the purchase with debt. The Salle Pleyel will now be
expected on its own to make payments on that debt, and in Mr. Bayle’s
view only a shift toward more commercially viable programming will make
this possible.
As
for the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, its director, Michel Franck, said
he was not overly worried about its future. True to its origins as a
theater, the venue presents operas and other stage works, but improved
acoustics since Mr. Franck took over in 2010 have enhanced its status as
one of Paris’s main concert venues.
“So
far none of our soloists or ensembles has left us for the
Philharmonie,” Mr. Franck said. He did say he would keep an eye on the
Philharmonie’s pricing structure because he doesn’t want his theater to
gain a reputation as an expensive hall.
Mr.
Franck plays down the concerns that swirl around his new competition.
“When the Barbican Center opened in London 30 years ago, people thought
almost no one would go there,” he said. “Now it’s totally successful.”
At
this point, perhaps the biggest unknown factor concerns the
Philharmonie’s acoustics. In designing the hall, Mr. Nouvel worked with
the New Zealand firm Marshall Day Acoustics and with Yasuhisa Toyota of
Nagata Acoustics of Japan. Both firms enjoy solid reputations, with Mr.
Toyota in particular having an impressive track record for successful
halls, including Disney Hall. But you never really know until an
orchestra is there to try things out. Acoustical tests for the
Philharmonie are set for November.
“We
have to hope the gods of acoustics are with us,” Mr. Järvi said in
July. “If not, there could be a second French Revolution.”
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