Philharmonie de Paris

Philharmonie de Paris
Established 14 January 2015 (2015-01-14)
Location 221 avenue Jean-Jaurès
Paris 75019, France
Coordinates 48°53′30″N 2°23′39″E / 48.891566°N 2.39407°E / 48.891566; 2.39407
Director Laurent Bayle
Website philharmoniedeparis.fr/en
Philharmonie de Paris: Philharmonie 1

The Philharmonie de Paris is a cultural institution in Paris, France which combine spaces all dedicated to music. It is composed of concert halls, exhibition spaces, rehearsal rooms, educational services, restaurant and bars. The main buildings are all located in the Parc de la Villette at the northeastern edge of Paris in the 19th arrondissement. At the core of this set of spaces is the symphonic concert hall of 2,400 seats designed by Jean Nouvel and opened in January 2015. Its construction had been postponed for about twenty years to complete the current musical institution la Cité de la Musique designed by Christian de Portzamparc and opened since 1995. [1] Mainly dedicated to symphonic concerts, the Philharmonie de Paris also present other forms of music such as jazz and world music.

Plans

The project was announced on 6 March 2006 by the Minister of Culture and Communication, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, the Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, and the Director of the Cité de la musique and of the Salle Pleyel, Laurent Bayle, during a press conference on the reopening of the Salle Pleyel, now linked with the Cité de la Musique. In 2007, Jean Nouvel won the design competition for the auditorium. He brought in Brigitte Métra as his partner, along with Marshall Day Acoustics (room acoustics design) and Nagata Acoustics (peer-review and scale model study).[2][3]

The cost of construction, expected to be 170 million euros, was shared by the national government (45 per cent), the Ville de Paris (45 per cent), and the Région Île-de-France (10 per cent), but the final cost was around €386 million ($505 million) [4]

Opening ceremony

The hall opened on 14 January 2015 with a performance by the Orchestre de Paris of Faure's Requiem, conducted by Paavo Järvi, played to honor the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shootings which had taken place in the city a week earlier. It is located in the Parc de la Villette in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. This sector of the city was also the home of the two brothers who carried out these killings. The opening concert was attended by François Hollande, the President of France, but boycotted by the architect[5]

Philharmonie 1

Designed by Jean Nouvel and inaugurated on 14 January 2015, the Philharmonie 1 is a mineral building with innovative forms, rising up like a hill within the Parc de la Villette. The aluminium swirls wrapped tightly around the concert hall contrast with the rest of its matt exterior. The exterior façade covering is composed of 340,000 birds, divided into seven different shapes and four shades ranging from light grey to black. More than 200,000 birds in aluminium sheeting are installed on the façades' to symbolize a grand take-off. The rooftop, 37 metres high, will be in the near term open to the public, visitors would have an expansive view of the city blending into the suburbs.

The building houses the site's largest concert hall, called the Grande salle. The design of the Grande salle follow the model pioneered by the Berlin Philharmonie to intensify the feeling of intimacy between the performers and their audience. Indeed, the auditorium adapted the way the 2400 seats are distributed, between the parterre, behind the stage and on floating balconies around the central stage. The farthest spectator is only 32 metres from the conductor (compared to 40 or 50 metres in most large symphony halls). The hall's enveloping configuration is designed to immerse the spectator in the music. Its walls are composed of moving panels designed to redirect the sound in multiple directions. These panels alternate with sound absorbing surfaces, specially treated to increase reflection and reverberation, the sound resonates throughout the vast acoustic volume (30,500 cubic metres).The tiers and parterre seating are retractable, offering an increased capacity of 3650 people for events such as amplified concerts that require special configurations.

A number of spaces for use by musicians are situated around the hall, including dressing rooms but also rehearsal rooms. In all, the hall is encircled by five rehearsal rooms for various ensembles and ten chamber music studios. An entire section of the building is occupied by an 1800 sq.m. (19,375 sq.ft.) educational centre. With various rooms designed for collective practice, it will host workshop cycles for various publics. The site also boasts an 800 sq.m. (8600 sq.ft.) exhibition space, a conference hall and two restaurants.

Philharmonie 2

Main article: Cité de la Musique

Organ

The Philharmonie de Paris contracted the Austrian organ-maker Rieger Orgelbau to construct a Pipe Organ. It is made up of over 7000 pipes with 91 stops and was designed to compliment the building's architecture. The organ will be debuted with a concert on October 28, 2015 with an improvisation by Thierry Escaich and a performance of Symphony No. 3 (Saint-Saëns).[6][7]

References

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Coordinates: 48°53′30″N 2°23′39″E / 48.891566°N 2.39407°E / 48.891566; 2.39407

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