The long awaited new concert hall in Paris, designed by award winning French architect Jean Nouvel, opens on 14 January with three inaugural concerts performed by the Orchestre de Paris and conducted by Paavo Järvi.
Following neither the ‘shoebox’ style (as at the Musikverein in Vienna), nor the ‘vineyard’ style (as at the Berlin Philharmonie), the Philharmonie de Paris invents a model all its own, with an adjustable concert hall based on the concept of envelopment. This original design required innovations in architecture, stage design and acoustical engineering. Though a high-capacity hall (2400 seats), the Philharmonie auditorium feels remarkably intimate. But this feeling can be mathematically explained: the distance between the conductor and the farthest spectator is only 32 metres (compared to 48 metres at the Salle Pleyel). ‘Evocative of immaterial, draped sheets of music and light, the hall suspends the listeners-spectators in space, on long balconies… This suspension creates the impression of being immersed in music and light’, explains the architect, Jean Nouvel.
Visit the official website of the Philharmonie de Paris