Prague can afford a new concerthall. Munich and London can’t
mainThe city of Prague is pushing ahead with a new symphonic hall on the banks of the Vlatava.
Architects are being lined up.
Report here.
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Prague needs I suppose a new concert hall the actual is charming but very small. The country of Smetana Dvorzak and Mahler must have something bigger. They did the same thing at Budapest.
another reason to move out of old blighty asap, as if one was needed…
That’s because they are not spending their own money, it’s all EU free money.
London has no more access to this money, and as for Munich, well, isn’t EU money mainly German money anyway?
“London has no more access to this money”
It didn’t anyway, it was a net contributor.
Poland has several swanky new concert halls too…but nobody in UK ever mentions them. The UK is very cut off from where the real music is happening everywhere else in the world..still stuck thinking it’s the centre of the universe and it really isn’t…
The fact that during the last 20 years we have seen so many new concert halls in Hamburg, Paris twice, Budapest, Dortmund, Dresden, Kopenhagen, Helsinki and Rome… is a kind of shame for the UK. And it’s sad because the Bristish like classical music. And OK it’s expensive but it’s an investisment for 50-80 years and it help to attract a new public younger. Some people in UK didn’t understand that…
Have you been to many concerts in the uk over the past 5 years? Audiences are thinning rapidly as the population ages, whereas in Poland the halls are full from young to old, and are very keen. Yes there are a lot of younger generation that don’t listen, but they do not dismiss it like uk younger generation, they have respect for it.
I think you need to define ‘real music’. I haven’t a clue what you are talking about.
Nowhere is the centre of the universe but there’s no shortage of places that think they are.
The Smetana Hall in Prague, where the Czech Philharmonic plays, is a gorgeous example of late nineteenth century beaux arts architecture. Its appearance screams to any visitor that important things are supposed to happen here. However the acoustics are poor – very reverberant, lacking in detail. The Prague Symphony plays in an equally beautiful art nouveau style hall, but here the acoustics are quite dry. Of course there is no guarantee that the new hall will be any better, but some good ones have been built recently.
The Czech Philharmonic plays in Dvorak Hall, in the Rudolfinum. The Prague Symphony plays in Smetana Hall, part of the Obecni Dum. Which is an exquisite venue but acoustics aren’t great (and note to shoebox fetishists: it’s a shoebox).
If I read the article correctly, it projects an opening for 2032. That’s a long time.
Well, that’s great news. The Rudolfinum has old-world charm and it can be quite the experience to hear the Czech Philharmonic from a seat in the middle of the balcony. But it only seats about 1,100 and has a number of views blocked by pillars. They’re a great orchestra, and should have a more suitable hall.
Please no more Toyota charlatanerie. Otherwise do what you want. Rudolfinum is great and still will be great.
The picture shows one of those typical cancerous urban eye sores. And that in the beautiful, unspoiled city of Prague?
Vltava is the river, please.