The wonderfully designed Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California, turns 10 years old this year. With its sweeping, idiosyncratic curves. metallic finish and public spaces, it is doing a lot (at least in LA terms) to revitalise the downtown area.
The interior is also beautifully designed, with seating in the round (limited audience seating behind the choir) and a very dramatic organ placement. The warm finish of the interior contrasts strikingly with the bright, metallic exterior.
Gramophone Magazine reports:
The Los Angeles Philharmonic is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Walt Disney Concert Hall with ‘insideOUT’, a number of special events taking place during September, October and November featuring music director Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yo-Yo Ma, Leif Ove Andsnes, Yefim Bronfman and Julie Andrews.
There will also be public forums with Frank Gehry, designer of the concert hall (Oct 2, 15), who writes of his building: ‘One of the primary considerations when conceiving the design for Walt Disney Concert Hall was to preserve the iconic importance of the LA Phil, but break down the often imposing scale of a traditional concert hall. Walt Disney Concert Hall is not just a building for music, but a building for the people. From the inside out, the building was designed to respond to its surrounding, and serve as a gathering place.’
Semi-Partisan Sam hopes to make his own visit to the Disney Concert Hall in the coming few years.
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