The Maurice Ravel Auditorium is a concert hall located in

Part-Dieu Part-Dieu () is an area of Lyon Metropolis. It is also the second largest tertiary district in France, after La Défense in Greater Paris, with over 1,150,000 m2 of office and service space, along with 45,000 service sector jobs, 2,500 compan ...

, the 3rd district of

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

. It was originally built for the National Orchestra of Lyon and is their residence hall. It is also one of the first buildings in France to be built with

Prestressed concrete Prestressed concrete is a form of concrete used in construction. It is substantially "prestressed" ( compressed) during production, in a manner that strengthens it against tensile forces which will exist when in service. Post-tensioned concreted i ...

Acoustics

The building was built without an acoustic study which resulted in the volume being too low for symphonic purposes, with a reflective concave back wall. The stage had no lateral walls, which resulted in the musicians struggling to hear one another. The wall was eventually treated to prevent strong echoes. Eventually a Phillips acoustic enhancement system was fitted to help with sound coverage and reverberation.

The Organ

In 1878 the renowned French organ builder,

Aristide Cavaillé-Coll Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (; 4 February 1811 – 13 October 1899) was a French organ builder. He has the reputation of being the most distinguished organ builder of the 19th century. He pioneered innovations in the art and science of organ buildi ...

, was commissioned to build a concert organ for the

Trocadéro The Trocadéro (), site of the Palais de Chaillot, is an area of Paris, France, in the 16th arrondissement, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. It is also the name of the 1878 palace which was demolished in 1937 to make way for the Palais ...

concert hall, under the supervision of renowned organist and composer

Alexandre Guilmant Félix-Alexandre Guilmant (; 12 March 1837 – 29 March 1911) was a French organist and composer. He was the organist of La Trinité from 1871 until 1901. A noted pedagogue, performer, and improviser, Guilmant helped found the Schola Cantor ...

. Because of the time constraints of the contract he did not have time to build one from scratch and had to use an uncompleted three-manual organ originally intended for the Church of Notre Dame in Auteuil, a district in the northwestern area of Paris, as the basis for the new instrument. The organ moved to the

Palais de Chaillot The Palais de Chaillot () is a building at the top of the in the Trocadéro area in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, 16th ''arrondissement'' of Paris, France. For the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937) ...

when the

was demolished and was ultimately bought by the government of Lyon for the Auditorium.

References

{{Authority control Brutalist architecture Concert halls in France