One in 5 cancels concert subscriptions
mainZurich’s Tonhalle is undergoing a three-year renovation.
The orchestra has moved out to an industrial estate in the burbs.
One in five concertgoers has cancelled their subscriptions. Read here.
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It needs a three-year renovation. (Or a three-month demolition.)
I attended one concert (by Yuja Wang, a Prokofiev PC, can’t remember which one) at the Tonhalle several years ago.
Never again. Rock-hard seats, distance between seating rows shorter than in a cheapo airline and requiring the adoption of a semi-foetal posture with alternating sideways knee movements every half-minute. Non-existent air conditioning, resulting in a whole-body sweat film.
In the interval, equally cramped outer hall spacing conditions necessitating the intimate rubbing of a****s with everyone else.
Plenty of scope for renovation there, I would say.
I was in Geneva recently and my friends pointed out the shed where the opera had been transferred during renovations to its home theatre. I did wonder whether the audience had moved with it.
One in five… that’s probably a better than average outcome considering the dislocation.
The temp hall looks very Scandinavian, lots of blond wood.
In the video they point out that artificial reverb has been implemented to improve it. That is very interesting.
The three-year period necessitating the orchestra’s finding a different venue is one of the main reasons why the Geffen renovation was canceled.
Really funny. It seems that Tonhalle will get a real concert hall, just after Paavo Jarvi assume the MD, in fact.
Coincidence? Lack of proper planning? Both option? Poor Lionel…
Seems like they and New York could both learn from Cincinnati:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/arts/music/geffen-hall-cincinnati-lincoln-center.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fmusic&action=click&contentCollection=music®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
or rather http://tinyurl.com/y8kc5qzm
“Here in Cincinnati, the orchestra carefully planned for its single season away from home, taking over a theater in downtown Cincinnati and spending $3 million to bring it up to snuff. It scheduled more visiting stars than usual and offered free parking to subscribers to try to keep them in the fold. During its season in exile, an orchestra official said, its subscriptions only dipped by 4.6 percent.”