The Royal Concertgebouw ( nl, Koninklijk Concertgebouw, ) is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term "concertgebouw" translates into English as "concert building". Its superb

acoustics Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...

place it among the finest

concert hall A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage that serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats. This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, dramatic theatres or convention centres that may ...

s in the world, along with Boston's Symphony Hall and the

Musikverein The ( or ; ), commonly shortened to , is a concert hall in Vienna, Austria, which is located in the Innere Stadt district. The building opened in 1870 and is the home of the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra. The acoustics of the building's 'Great ...

in Vienna. In celebration of the building's 125th anniversary, Queen Beatrix bestowed the royal title " Koninklijk" upon the building on 11 April 2013, as she had on the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra upon its 100th in 1988.

History

The architect of the building was , who was inspired by the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, built two years earlier (and destroyed in 1943). Construction began in 1883 in a pasture that was then outside the city, in Nieuwer-Amstel, a municipality that in 1964 became Amstelveen. A total of 2,186 wooden piles, twelve to thirteen metres (40 to 43 ft) long, were emplaced in the soil. The Concertgebouw was completed in late 1886, however due to the difficulties with the municipality of Nieuwer-Amstel – filling in a small canal, paving the access roads and installing street lights – the grand opening of the building was delayed. The hall opened on 11 April 1888 with an inaugural concert, in which an orchestra of 120 musicians and a chorus of 500 singers participated, performing works of Wagner,

Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training i ...

, Bach, and Beethoven. The resident orchestra of the Concertgebouw is the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (''Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest''), which gave its first concert in the hall on 3 November 1888, as the Concertgebouw Orchestra (''Concertgebouworkest''). For many decades from the 1950s to the present day the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra (previously the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra) as well as the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest also provide their regular concert series in the Concertgebouw. On 17 September 1969, British

progressive Progressive may refer to: Politics * Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform ** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context * Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

performed their '' The Man and The Journey'' show at Concertgebouw.Archived a
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and th
Wayback Machine
The show's climax was a rendition of " Celestial Voices" (renamed "The End of the Beginning") in which keyboardist Rick Wright played the hall's organ in place of his Farfisa. The performance was released on CD as part of the band's 2016 box set, '' The Early Years 1965–1972'' in ''Volume 3: 1969 Dramatis/ation''. Today, some nine hundred concerts and other events per year take place in the Concertgebouw, for a public of over 700,000, making it one of the most-visited concert halls in the world. , the managing director of the Concertgebouw is Simon Reinink and the artistic director is Anneke Hogenstijn.

Building

The Main Hall (''Grote Zaal'') seats 1,974, and is 44 metres (144 ft) long, 28 metres (92 ft) wide, and 17 metres (56 ft) high. Its reverberation time is 2.8 seconds without audience, 2.2 seconds with, making it ideal for the late

Romantic Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...

repertoire such as Mahler. Although this characteristic makes it largely unsuited for amplified music, groups such as Led Zeppelin,

and The Who did perform there in the 1960s. In the Main Hall, there is a layer of dust in several places as removing this layer would impact the acoustics as they are now. A smaller, oval-shaped venue, the Recital Hall (''Kleine Zaal''), is located behind the Main Hall. The Recital Hall is 20 metres (66 ft) long and 15 metres (50 ft) wide. Its more intimate space is well-suited for

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

and

Lied In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French s ...

er. The Recital Hall has 437 seats. In 1983, the Concertgebouw was found to be sinking into the damp Amsterdam earth, with several inch-wide cracks appearing in the walls, so the hall embarked on extensive fundraising for renovations. Its difficult emergency restoration started in 1985, during which the 2,186 rotting wooden pilings were replaced with concrete pillars. Dutch architect

Pi de Bruijn Pi de Bruijn (born 28 August 1942) is a Dutch architect from Losser, Overijssel, the Netherlands . He is a design principal at the Office de Architecten Cie., located in Amsterdam. History Bruijn graduated from the Delft University of Technology ...

designed a modern annex for a new entrance and a basement to replace cramped dressing and rehearsal space. Jacob Olie - Concertgebouw Amsterdam 10 november 1902.jpeg, Concertgebouw in 1902, by

Jacob Olie Jacob Olie (1834 – 1905) was a photographer from Amsterdam known for his scenes of everyday life there. Olie was born in Amsterdam and was trained as a carpenter and draughtsman.Jacob Olie (Jbz) in the RKD He became a teacher at the local sch ...

Exterieur VOORGEVEL, LINKER ZIJGEVEL - Amsterdam - 20288737 - RCE.jpg, East side before its restoration in 1985 Exterieur NIEUWE AANBOUW, OVERZICHT - Amsterdam - 20260226 - RCE.jpg, East side with the new entrance

Organ

The

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

was built in 1890 by the organ builder Michael Maarschalkerweerd from Utrecht, and was renovated in the years 1990 to 1993 by the organ builder Flentrop. It has 60 registers on three divisions and pedal. 22 lier concertgebouw - WLM 2011 - drobm

22 lier concertgebouw - WLM 2011 - drobm

* Couplers: II/I (also as Suboktavkoppel), III/I, III/II, I/P, II/P, III/P

Names of composers in the Main Hall

In the Main Hall, the surnames of the following 46 composers are displayed on the balcony ledges and on the walls:

In popular culture

The Concertgebouw is mentioned, along with

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

, the

Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in America by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018. The Hollywood Bowl is known for its distin ...

, and the

Rainbow Theatre The Rainbow Theatre, originally known as the Finsbury Park Astoria, is a Grade II*-listed building in Finsbury Park, London. The theatre was built in 1930 as a cinema. It later became a music venue. Today, the building is used by the Universa ...

, in the song " Rock Show" from the 1975 Wings album '' Venus and Mars''. Belgian singer mentions the Concertgebouw in his song . Erroll Garner recorded the live album ''The Amsterdam Concert'' in the venue in November 1964.

References

External links

* *
Archive of the Concertgebouw
at the Amsterdam City Archives * {{Authority control 1888 establishments in the Netherlands Amsterdam-Zuid Concert halls in Amsterdam Music venues completed in 1888 Rijksmonuments in Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra