Concertgebouw de Vereeniging Nijmegen Art Deco Jugendstil 1915 Concert hall Opera

Concertgebouw de Vereeniging is a

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 ...

located in

Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

, Netherlands. The facility officially opened in 1915 and is built in a mixture of

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

and

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

styles. It has a capacity of 1,450 seats (or 1,800 standing people during pop concerts), and is renowned for its outstanding acoustics for orchestral music. Concertgebouw de Vereeniging is a designated

Rijksmonument A rijksmonument (, ) is a national heritage site of the Netherlands, listed by the agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE) acting for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. At the end of February 2015, the Netherlands ...

History

In 1882, the private society De Vereeniging was established with a concert hall at the Keizer Karelplein. Around 1900 the old Nijmegen concert hall turned out to have had its best time, plans were made for a new one. That these plans were not a superfluous luxury, was evident from the attitude of conductor

Willem Mengelberg Joseph Wilhelm Mengelberg (28 March 1871 – 21 March 1951) was a Dutch conductor, famous for his performances of Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler and Strauss with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest s ...

. He refused to visit Nijmegen any longer as long as nothing was done to the accommodation. After the construction of a new concert hall was started in 1914, the official opening took place in February 1915. The architect of the whole was Oscar Leeuw from

Roermond Roermond (; li, Remunj or ) is a city, municipality, and diocese in the Limburg province of the Netherlands. Roermond is a historically important town on the lower Roer on the east bank of the river Meuse. It received town rights in 1231. Roer ...

. It took another two years before the small hall (Kleine Zaal) was opened. The Vereeniging turned out to have become a 'Gesamtkunstwerk', because both the architect Oscar Leeuw and his brother Henri Leeuw jr. (Painter and sculptor) had contributed. The figurative work was developed in Nijmegen by the painter Huib Luns and the

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

sculptor Egidius Everaerts, while the non-figurative work was made by the sculptor Jacques Oor. Erected in strict, classically oriented Um 1800 forms. Various characteristics of

and

can be found in the building. Mengelberg is known to have found the building 'the most beautiful Concerthall in the Netherlands'. The great hall is known for its good acoustics. Other rooms in the building are the Entrance and Colonnade, the Keizer Karelfoyer, the Annazaal, the Sociëteitskamer, the Leeuwzaal and the Grand Café Restaurant. Originally the building would serve as a concert hall with opera or theater and as a ball or exhibition hall. The building is considered the 'opus magnum' of Oscar Leeuw's oeuvre.

Gallery

References

{{Coord, 51, 50, 29, N, 5, 51, 39, E, source:nlwiki_type:landmark_scale:3125_region:NL, display=title Buildings and structures in Nijmegen Concert halls in the Netherlands Rijksmonuments in Nijmegen Theatres completed in 1915 Art Nouveau architecture in the Netherlands Art Deco architecture in the Netherlands Art Nouveau theatres