Elbphilharmonie Orchestra/Hengelbrock review – storming debut for hall of wonders

Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg
The spectacular possibilities of Hamburg’s new concert venue were celebrated in an imaginative opening concert

Hamburg’s new concert hall is Germany’s latest austerity-defying architectural bobby-dazzler. But what about the music? How do you mark the opening of a lustrous new hall that is now, after all the arguments and the overspend, the pride of Hamburg? The conventional thing to do would be to programme a mighty work of the heavens — Beethoven’s Ninth, Haydn’s Creation, or maybe throw down the gauntlet with a specially commissioned new piece.

Thomas Hengelbrock and his renamed NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester took a different approach for an opening night attended by German president Joachim Gauck, who made a speech, and chancellor Angela Merkel – back in her native city for the occasion – who didn’t. The opening ceremony interwove speeches and a tribute to Hamburg’s two native musical giants, Mendelssohn and Brahms, with the Roy Blas overture and the finale of the second symphony respectively.

Related: 'We thought it was going to destroy us' … Herzog and De Meuron's Hamburg miracle

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