Helsinki opens for music business
mainThe new concert hall was inaugurated last night and the world has been rushing to book it.
The Finnish capital, replete with great musicians, has been inhibited by the lack of a decent concert hall. Now, on the strength of Yasuhisa Toyota’s fabled acoustics – he’s the man behind LA’s Disney Hall – the world’s great orchestras are flooding in, most for the first time.
I have it on good authority that the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics will be here within a year – Berlin with Simon Rattle and Vienna, unusually, playing Sibelius, with Lorin Maazel – followed by New York and more.
Many here suspect that Vienna, with its sonic stability, will test the hall best.
Mr Lebrecht, there is also the Montreal new hall which opens next week (september 7th). The hall was designed by Tateo Nakajima from Artec. The hall cost 259 million $CAN.
Kent Nagano will conduct the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in a program of Quebec composers and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony for the opening concert. One week later, it will be Messiaen’s Turangalila-Symphonie.
The hall will also be used by Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s Orchestre Métropolitain, the baroque orchestra Les Violons du Roy and several other events. Gergiev and his Mariinsky will visit on October 22nd, and Gilbert’s NY Phil on November 4-5th.