Another UK conductor wants a new hall
mainThe Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra plays in an acoustic hellhole in Poole. It has longed for years to have a hall in the town whose name it bears. Now it seems the conductor Kirill Karabits may have persuaded Bournemouth’s council leader by taking him to hear Bilbao’s 100 million Euro new hall. Bournemouth may beat London to a decent hall. Read here.
Funny that making a great new concert hall in England was “pie in the sky” when the most influential British conductor alive talked about it, only to suddenly become realistic when another conductor with considerably less influence talks about it.
Let me guess: Norman just doesn’t want Rattle to have his concert hall. [redacted]
Good for him! As a Bournemouthian born and bred, this is great news, for the town and for the BSO (if it comes to pass, of course). I have fond memories of the Winter Gardens, which had as I remember quite good acoustics but was horrendously ugly. Nevertheless it was very sad when the council knocked it down without an acoustically competitive replacement. I wouldn’t call their current hall a ‘hellhole’ personally, but it’s certainly no CBSO Symphony Hall. When I was a kid they also used that room for roller discos and for Musical Youth in concert (remember them?).
Ah, the Winter Gardens….. Charlie Groves…..
Of course we nostalgically remember them, but how many of you can recall the notices In the nearby park: ‘Dogs and Merchant Seamen are not allowed on the grass’?