Paris Nouvel

Amid predictable controversy, France’s latest concert hall, La Philharmonie de Paris, opens this week - too soon according to its gifted architect, Jean Nouvel, whose hall on the lakeside in Lucerne can claim to be the finest modern concert hall in Europe.

According to Nouvel, the Paris hall is not yet ready - something that can be said about the opening of most other new halls. From commentators come complaints that its name is second-hand, acquired from the great Philharmonie in Berlin, which it resembles in its in-the-round audience layout, and in the terracing which has come to be called  “vineyard” design, in contrast with the conventional shoebox shape.

 Its position on the city outskirts, near the peripheral ring-road, has also been criticised. But its materials, employing a great deal of aluminium, are  undeniably striking, and its seating capacity of 2400, though large, evidently does not distance listeners from the music.

Until now, Paris - like London - has possessed no great halls. The Salle Pleyel, the Palais de Chaillot, the Chatelet and the Theatre de Champs-Elysees (the best of the bunch) all have serious acoustical deficiencies, as I well remember from the days, half a century ago, when  I lived there.

With the award-winning  Jean Nouvel as designer, there is surely hope for the new home of the Orchestre de Paris, whose conductor, at least for the moment, is the spirited Paavo Jarvi, son of the much-loved Neeme, whose period in Scotland was a good one for the RSNO.
14 January 2015