The Elbphilharmonie (; "Elbe Philharmonic Hall"), popularly nicknamed Elphi, 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 ...

in the HafenCity quarter of

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, Germany, on the Grasbrook peninsula of the

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...

River. It is among the largest in the world. The new glassy construction resembles a hoisted sail, water wave, iceberg or quartz crystal resting on top of an old brick warehouse (Kaispeicher A, built in 1963) near the historical

Speicherstadt The Speicherstadt (, literally: 'City of Warehouses', meaning warehouse district) in Hamburg, Germany is the largest warehouse district in the world where the buildings stand on timber-pile foundations, oak logs, in this particular case. It is ...

. The project is the result of a private initiative by the architect and real estate developer Alexander Gérard and his wife Jana Marko, an art historian, who commissioned the original design by the Swiss architecture firm

Herzog & de Meuron Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd.,
" Herzog & de Meuron. Retrieved on 11 October 2012. "Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd. R ...

, who developed and promoted the project (since 2003 in cooperation with the Hamburg-based real estate developer and investor Dieter Becken) for 3.5 years until the City of Hamburg decided to develop the project by itself. It is the key project of the new Hafencity development and the tallest inhabited building in Hamburg, with a final height of . The Elbphilharmonie was officially inaugurated with concerts of the

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra (german: NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester) is a German radio orchestra. Affiliated with the ''Norddeutscher Rundfunk'' (NDR; North German Broadcasting), the orchestra is based at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Ge ...

and a light show on 11 January 2017.

History

On 2 April 2007, the foundation stone was laid in the warehouse, in the presence of then First Mayor of Hamburg

Ole von Beust Ole von Beust (born 13 April 1955) is a former German politician who was First Mayor of Hamburg from 31 October 2001 to 25 August 2010, serving as President of the Bundesrat from 1 November 2007 on for one year. He was succeeded as mayor by Ch ...

Hochtief Hochtief AG is a German construction company based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.Hamburg Minister of Culture

Karin von Welck Karin von Welck (born 30 April 1947 in Buir, North Rhine-Westphalia) is an anthropologist. She been Cultural Senator of the city state of Hamburg since 2004. Welck is an independent. Works Welck graduated in 1966 in politics, ethnology, Germ ...

and architect

Pierre de Meuron Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd.,
" Herzog & de Meuron. Retrieved on 11 October 2012. "Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd. R ...

. In 2007, the construction was scheduled to be finished by 2010 with an estimated cost of €241 million. In November 2008, after the original contract was amended, the costs for the project were estimated at €450 million. In August 2012, the costs were re-estimated to be over €500 million, which should also cover the increased cost for a strengthened roof. Construction work officially ended on 31 October 2016 at a cost of €866 million. The first public test concert at the Elbphilharmonie was held on 25 November 2016. The official opening concert took place on 11 January 2017 with a performance by the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under direction of

Thomas Hengelbrock Thomas Hengelbrock (born 9 June 1958) is a German violinist, musicologist, stage director and conductor. Born in Wilhelmshaven, Hengelbrock studied the violin with Rainer Kussmaul. He started his career in Würzburg and Freiburg im Breisgau. ...

. The first musical selection was "Pan" from

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

's ''

Six Metamorphoses after Ovid ''Six Metamorphoses after Ovid'' (Op. 49) is a piece of program music for solo oboe written by English composer Benjamin Britten in 1951. History The piece was inspired by Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. It is dedicated to oboist Joy Boughton, daughte ...

''. Hamburg.Hafen.1882.jpg, Hamburg aerial view with Kaiserspeicher left-centre, 1882 Kaiserspeicher1.jpg, Kaiserspeicher, built 1875, damaged in WW2, demolished 1963 Kaispeicher A.jpg, Kaispeicher A by architect Werner Kallmorgen (built 1963) in 2005 ElbPhi gr. Modell 2.jpg, Elbphilharmonie model

Building

Elbphilharmonie Illumination svensson 31423763713

The building is designed as a cultural and residential complex. The original 1966 brick façade of the Kaispeicher A, formerly a warehouse, was retained at the base of the building. On top of this a footprint-matching superstructure rests on its own foundation exhibiting a glassy exterior and a wavy roof line. About one thousand glass windows are curved. The building has 26 floors with the first eight floors within the brick façade. It reaches its highest point with at the western side. The footprint of the building measures . A curved escalator from the main entrance at the east side connects the ground floor with an observation deck, the Plaza, at the 8th floor, the top of the brick section. The Plaza is accessible by the public. It offers a view of Hamburg and the

. From the Plaza the foyer of the concert hall can be reached. The Elbphilharmonie has three concert venues. The Great Concert Hall can accommodate 2,100 visitors whereby the performers are in the center of the hall surrounded by the audience in the

vineyard style The vineyard style is a design of a concert hall where the seating surrounds the stage, rising up in serried rows in the manner of the sloping terraces of a vineyard. It may be contrasted with the shoebox style, which has a rectangular auditorium a ...

arrangement. The

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 ...

were designed by

Yasuhisa Toyota (born 1952) is a Japanese acoustician, who has been chief acoustician for over 50 projects worldwide, including the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Bard College Performing Arts Center in New York, the Elbphilharmonie in Ha ...

who installed about 10,000 individually microshaped drywall plates to disperse sound waves. The Great Concert Hall contains a pipe organ with 69 registers built by

Klais Orgelbau Orgelbau Klais is a German firm that designs, builds and restores pipe organs. It is a family run company, founded in 1882 by Johannes Klais senior and is now run by his great-grandson Philipp Klais. The firm is based in Bonn, Germany, and has co ...

. The Recital Hall is intended for the performance of recitals, chamber music and jazz concerts; it can hold an audience of 550 people. In addition, there is the Kaistudio that allows for 170 visitors and is intended to serve educational activities. The consultant for the scenography of the concert hall was

Ducks Scéno Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...

. The easternmost part of the building is rented by

Westin Westin Hotels & Resorts is an American upscale hotel chain owned by Marriott International. , the Westin Brand has 226 properties with 82,608 rooms in multiple countries in addition to 58 hotels with 15,741 rooms in the pipeline. History Wester ...

as the Westin Hamburg Hotel that opened on 4 November 2016. The hotel offers 244 rooms between the 9th and 20th floors. The lobby in the 8th floor can be accessed from the Plaza. The upper floors west of the concert hall accommodate 45 luxury apartments. The complex also houses conference rooms, restaurants, bars, and a spa. A parking garage for 433 cars is part of the building complex as well.

Controversy

The project was criticized because of its cost and schedule overruns; construction was originally estimated to cost about €200 million, while the final cost was €870 million. However, upon completion,

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

in a comparative analysis suggested that the overrun was relatively "modest" compared to some other international mega-projects. Despite the efforts of acoustician

, complaints about poor

in the hall have been aired. After the grand opening on 11 January 2017, many musicians as well as conductors called the acoustics in the hall "appaling" and "terrible". An initial review noted that "the hall is bright, very dry, direct, unforgiving. You can hear everything and immediately, for better and worse" and that "every sound—including coughs—can be heard most excellently in the hall. Every hawk, every sneeze and wheeze, every unwrapped lozenge shoots out, dry, like a daggered exclamation mark." On the other hand, in a 2019 performance of Mahler's ''

Das Lied von der Erde ''Das Lied von der Erde'' ("The Song of the Earth") is an orchestral song cycle for two voices and orchestra written by Gustav Mahler between 1908 and 1909. Described as a symphony when published, it comprises six songs for two singers who alte ...

'', audience members shouted, "can't hear you" at tenor

Jonas Kaufmann Jonas Kaufmann (born 10 July 1969) is a German operatic tenor. He is best known for the versatility of his repertoire, performing a variety of opera roles in multiple languages in recitalTommasini, Anthony (21 February 2014)"A Tenor Finds Energy ...

, who himself later complained, "This hall does not help...".Joachim Mischke
"Nie wieder Elbphilharmonie? Jonas Kaufmann kritisiert Klang."
''Hamburger Abendblatt.'' 19 March 2019. Retrieved 5 October 2022.

Public transport

The nearest rail station is Baumwall on Hamburg Metro line 3, about away. The nearest bus stop is Am Kaiserkai, away.

Ferry services

Elbphilharmonie is the name of a ferry pier, reachable from Hamburg's

St. Pauli Piers The St. Pauli Piers (german: St. Pauli Landungsbrücken, often only referred to as ''Landungsbrücken''; ), is the largest landing site in the Port of Hamburg, Germany, and also one of Hamburg's major tourist attractions. Other English language tr ...

Gallery

Hamburg on the Elbe -a.jpg, Elbphilharmonie construction in December 2009 RK 1009 9904 Elbphilharmonie HafenCity.jpg, Aerial view, September 2010 Elbphilharmonie 2014 - Elb 0002bec1.jpg, Aerial view with ferry pier in the top right corner, May 2013 Elbphilharmonie, Februar 2015-4969.jpg, Closeup of the facade, February 2015 Hamburg, Schwedische Gustaf-Adolfs-Kirche (und Elbphilharmonie) -- 2016 -- 3171.jpg, Gustaf Adolfs Church and the Elbphilharmonie, June 2016 Hamburg - Elbphilharmonie - 2016.jpg, Elbphilharmonie, August 2016 Elbphilharmonie ist fertig.jpg,

Blinkenlights Blinkenlights is a neologism for Blinkenlights#Actual blinkenlights, diagnostic lights usually on the front panels on old mainframe computers, minicomputers, many early microcomputers, and modern network hardware. It has been seen as a ske ...

-like "Fertig" ("finished") message, construction completed 31 October 2016 Hamburg Elbphilharmonie Dach.jpg, Detail of the roof construction

References

External links

*
Picture of the Elbe Philharmonic Hall

Live Webcam showing the Elbphilharmonie

alternative link: https://www.elbphilharmonie.de/de/mediathek/elbphilharmonie-sessions-meute/615# --> ''Elbphilharmonie Sessions''
a live concert of techno marching band

MEUTE (, stylized as MEUTE, German for "pack", "rout" or "crowd") is an eleven-piece self-described techno marching band from Germany. The band arranges techno, House music, house and deep house works by well-known DJs, augmenting them with electron ...

on the rooftop, with aerial views of the building, 2021 9:27 {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Hamburg-Mitte Culture in Hamburg Music in Hamburg Concert halls in Germany Deconstructivism Herzog & de Meuron buildings Tourist attractions in Hamburg Skyscrapers in Hamburg Residential skyscrapers in Germany Skyscraper hotels in Germany Music venues completed in 2017 2017 establishments in Germany