Hamburg’s long-awaited Elbphilharmonie plazza opens

Ten times over-budget, several years overdue and many lawsuits later, the €789m Elbphilharmonie concert hall, or “Elphie” as it is affectionately known, is finally finished, down to its very €300 toilet brushes and its 1,000 handblown glass lamps, constituting both a landmark and a trademark for the city of Hamburg.

“After a difficult start, all of the people involved in the project have done a great job,” said Hamburg First Mayor Olaf Scholz at the opening of the Elbphilharmonie concert hall’s plaza on Friday.

Together with the Sydney Opera House, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles and New York’s Lincoln Center, the Elphie is likely to become one of the world’s leading modern cultural sites.

At a height of 37 meters (121 feet), the plaza, which joins the original harbor brick storage facility upon which it was built with its spectacular glass construction, seems to float on air.  It features two concert halls, a restaurant, a hotel with 250 rooms and 45 luxury apartments, and its terrace outside commands an exquisite panoramic view of the harbor and the city.

While it opens its doors to the general public today, the greatest excitement of all will come on January 11 when the main concert hall makes its debut, as its acoustics have been hailed as among the top 10 in the world, with equally excellent sound at each of its 2,150 seats, thanks to Japanese acoustical engineer Yasuhisa Toyota, considered one of the world’s best.

Though the building has been described as a structure of architectural virtuosity, its architects, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, confessed: “There were moments when we thought this building would destroy our whole career; (that) somehow we were responsible for this total disaster, because we had seduced the people with our design.”

At the opening events this weekend through December 4, visitors can experience a walk-in sound installation by musician and producer Brian Eno, and a musical discovery tour of the foyer space by choreographer Sasha Waltz and her ensemble from January 1 through 4, 2017.

A gala concert on January 11 will mark the official opening of the so-called Großer Saal, the main concert hall.  No doubt the event will be music to the world’s ears.

Sources: Deutsche Welle & The Guardian