Back in the 1980s, the chance of seeing the managers of the London
Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra (pictured right)
conducting a joint press interview, discussing their plans and talking in
warm terms about collaborations, would have seemed as remote as the Ulster
Unionists sharing power with Sinn Fein. The hostility of the two London
bands towards each other – exacerbated by a fraught takeover attempt, and by
the South Bank Board’s viciously divisive competition to select a resident
symphony orchestra – was surpassed only by their mutual loathing of the
London Symphony Orchestra, safely ensconsed at the Barbican.
But today? Just as in Belfast there’s nothing but sweet harmony between
Paisley and McGuinness, so in London the veteran manager of the
Philharmonia, David Whelton, presents a wonderfully jovial united front with
Tim Walker, his opposite number at the LPO. I’m not very conversant with the
Chinese calendar, but is this the Year of the Flying Pig?
Of course the latter have much to be jovial about. After two years in the
wilderness – downscaling their repertoire for the much smaller Queen
Elizabeth Hall, while its big sister was spruced up – the Royal Festival
Hall’s two symphony orchestras are back where they belong: at the heart of
London’s musical life. Not that either manager regards the QEH years as
wasted.
“We both used that period to explore different repertoire,” Whelton says. “I
think our audiences enjoyed the intimacy. And the challenge to conductors of
balancing orchestras in that confined space certainly helped us to sort out
the sheep from the goats!”
Walker echoes this view. “There have been some real gains from the past two
years,” he says. “The players could hear themselves better than in the old
Festival Hall. And we started playing chamber music too, which will probably
continue.”
But now all eyes – and especially all ears – are on the refurbished Festival
Hall. So far the orchestras have played there only in secret acoustic tests
that have been off-limits for journalists. That managerial caution is
understandable. Forget the sumptuously upgraded foyers, the new restaurants,
the rooftop terraces and all the other trimmings. If the dry, unreverberent
sound in the Festival Hall still “saps the will to live” (in Simon Rattle’s
unforgettable phrase), the entire £111 million refurbishment will be a
failure.
“I’ve had no negative feedback from anybody,” Walker says. “What’s critical is
that the players themselves feel much more comfortable. They can hear each
other much better. And the sound reaching the audience is greatly enhanced.
I’ve sat in lots of seats. The sound penetrates areas it didn’t before. It’s
warmer and there’s more volume, but we haven’t lost the clarity.” Whelton’s
verdict is that “for the first time since 1951 the acoustic has come to
life”. But both managers make the point that the musicians may take months
to adjust to the “new” hall, after years of slogging out the music in the
aural equivalent of a padded cell.
What a pity, then, that London’s music lovers and orchestras have had to wait
so long for this improvement.
At least 20 years have slipped by since the South Bank Board first mooted
rectifying the faults. “Of course you regret the wasted decades,” Whelton
agrees. “Several good schemes have come and gone. But it takes political
will to get this done. That wasn’t there in the 1980s and 1990s.”
Coming from Australia, Walker has a rather more provocative take on the
refurbishment. “When I first arrived in London and saw the plans to
refurbish the hall, I thought ‘this is crazy!’ With the amount of land and
the amount of money available, I felt that we should build a brand new
concert-hall with great acoustics and proper rehearsal spaces. Look at what
Gateshead has achieved with The Sage, on a budget of £76 million. But things
don’t happen logically. I had underestimated the weight of history.”
Both managers stress that although their orchestras will retain their
individual identities, the years of pointlessly antagonistic competition are
over. The LPO generally will play on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays; the
Philharmonia on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. They will agree not to
clash on repertoire or soloists. And there are even plans for joint
festivals (a Haydn/Mendelssohn one is in the offing). The two bands are
already sharing pit duties for the Festival Hall’s summer production of Carmen
Jones.
“The great orchestral wars of the 1980s are 1990s are legendary,” Whelton
says. “But the relationship between us has been transformed. With their
recent exciting conducting appointments – Vladimir Jurowski coming to the
LPO and Esa-Pekka Salonen coming to us – both orchestras have made hugely
encouraging statements about the future. And our relationship with the South
Bank has also been transformed in the past year or two. The needs of the
orchestras have been given paramount consideration throughout the rebuilding
period.”
So with internal tensions resolved, can the Festival Hall’s orchestras now
concentrate on the real battle ahead – wresting the initiative back from the
astutely run Barbican Arts Centre and the London Symphony Orchestra, which
has recently enjoyed virtually unchallenged supremacy in the London
orchestral world? “Actually, I’ve never believed that one London orchestra
is head and shoulders above the rest,” Whelton claims. “If the combination
of conductor, soloists and repertoire is right, they are all capable of
giving fantastic concerts. And our researches suggest that there’s only
about a 10 per cent overlap in the audiences for the two venues.
“Where the Barbican/LSO experience has been valuable is in teaching us the
benefits of a rock-steady relationship between orchestras and venues. I
think we’ve got that now at the Festival Hall. But we are determined to do
our own thing, not worry about competing with anybody else.”
The glint in his eye, however, suggests otherwise.
It’s the children, not the adults, who seem to notice the life-size sculptures
perched precipitously on top of buildings around the Southbank Centre. “Look
Mum, there’s another one of those people I thought was real!” said one girl
excitedly to her mother. The 31 figures have been installed as part of
Antony Gormley’s exhibition Blind Light in the Hayward
Gallery ( right, until Aug 19) which includes disorientatingly
foggy rooms.
Besides the RFH, all Southbank Centre venues – including the Hayward, Queen
Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room – are in celebratory mood with an
invigorating roster of dance ( see page 7) and classical music ( see
page 9) events.
We are already into the second day of Overture which runs until dusk
tomorrow, where visitors will be treated to a dizzying array of classical,
jazz, rock and world music, dance, and visual art – all for free ( see
box, right). It will also feature the Memory Light Show as part of the
Love the Festival Hall project, where 4,000 “memories” sent in by the public
will be displayed and projected. As well as the main venues, the surrounding
public spaces are open for the public to explore. My six-year-old son
Michael was free to rub his face on the smoothness of the silver Zemra
sculpture by William Pye outside the Festival Hall, and join other children
climbing its arms.
Love UK cabs, funded by the National Lottery, will be offering free
rides between the following Lottery-funded locations this weekend too:
London Zoo, The South Bank Centre, The Natural History Museum, The Globe
Theatre and The National Portrait Gallery. At each venue, a Love UK
representative will guide passengers to one of the free cabs (for more
information, see loveuk.org).
The Hayward Summer Fountain series means that Jeppe Hein’s Appearing
Rooms, a wet and wild success from last year, will return for those
brave enough to walk through it. On June 29, it is joined by Klaus Weber’s
The Big Giving fountains, installed on the Riverside Terrace in the form of
six male and female figures rising out of volcanic mounds of rock and
spouting water from their mouths.
For those who prefer their outdoor sculptures living, there is also a promise
from the chief executive of the South Bank, Michael Lynch, that the
ever-present skateboarders “will not be moved on and their
graffitied undercrofts will stay”.
London Literature Festival is launched on June 29 (till 12 July; www.
southbankcentre.co.uk/literaturefestival) with Roger McGough and Brian
Patten hosting 40-Love, an anniversary republication of The
Mersey Sound anthology, and helping to launch the new National Poetry
Library. The Festival has many events catering for children, with Michael
Rosen performing his one-man show
Mustard, Custard, Grumble Belly and Gravy and Jacqueline Wilson, the
Children’s Laureate, reading from her books.
Pretenders to the throne: Britain’s newest and best concert halls
Symphony Hall, Birmingham Possibly the biggest success of Simon
Rattle’s tenure at the CBSO was leading the orchestra into their fabulous
new home in 1991. The key to the superb acoustic of the £27m building lay in
Russell Johnson’s adjustable reverberation chambers.
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester The £42m project had an acoustic that was
criticised by some. But what triumphed were the spacious foyers and airy yet
intimate auditorium. Famously, the staff working inside its soundproofed
walls were the only people in Manchester not to hear the 1996 IRA bomb. Now
home to the thriving Hallé and the BBC Philharmonic.
The Sage, Gateshead Norman Foster’s Sage boasts the most refined
acoustic. The main hall, seating 1,700, is modelled on the Musikverein in
Vienna. Home team: the Northern Sinfonia.
Perth Concert Hall On time and on budget (£20m) when it opened in 2005,
Scotland’s newest hall is intended for classical and pop – which explains
the middling acoustic. Still a welcome stop for the Royal Scottish National
and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestras. NEIL FISHER
Where to eat on the South Bank Skylon Restaurant
First floor, Royal Festival Hall, 020-7654 7800 or www.skylonrestaurant.co.uk.
Designed by Sir Terence Conran, Skylon, far right, is a predictably
stunning homage to the best of 1950s design. The chef Helena Puolakka is
preparing “modern European food with British influences” and the 1951 menu
for the Grill offers three courses for £24.50.
Canteen Southbank Centre Square, 0845 6861122 or www.canteen.co.uk
(open mid-June). Winner of numerous restaurant awards, Spitalfields Canteen
will be serving high-quality British food with a bar celebrating the best of
British beers. An all-day menu will offer breakfast, lunch, dinner,
afternoon tea and bar snacks.
Giraffe 1-2 Riverside Level, Festival Hall, 020-7928 2004 or
www.giraffe.net. Turn up early to eat at this popular, family-friendly
restaurant, and feed your children on beans on toast while you eat asparagus
with yakitori dressing with a glass of wine. Free orange balloons tied to
children’s wrists will help you find them later.
Ping Pong Festival Terrace, Southbank Centre, 020-7960 4160 or
www.pingpongdimsum.com. Opened last month as the latest in a small chain of
seven restaurants, Ping Pong serves Chinese dim sum and jasmine tea.
Overture: the RFH’s reopening weekend
TODAY
10.30 and 12.30 The London Philharmonic and Scott Stroman create a big
band with a difference. Ballroom Floor
15.30 and 18.00 FLAG: 180 dancers take over the RFH.
16.30 and 20.00 Overture Poetry Slam competition.
18.00 and 21.00 The London Sinfonietta lead a mass performance of Terry
Riley’s iconic In C. Ballroom Floor
19.30 and 23.00 Rafael Bonachela’s virtuosic dancers perform. Ballroom
Floor
20.30 Big Busk Mass Singalong with Billy Bragg.
22.00 Singing River. Candlelit choir travels down the Thames to perform
with Voicelab singers. Festival Pier
TOMORROW
13.45 Unexpected Harmony: baroque and gospel song led by the Orchestra
of the Age of Enlightenment and gospel conductor Ken Burton.
16.00 and 19.00 Shlomo leads a unique Beatbox choir.
18.00 The Last Movement: the Philharmonia play Beethoven’s Ode
to Joy with 2,000 singers from around the UK in a new translation by
Billy Bragg.
18.30 Ballroom dancers perform across Southbank Centre. Dancers of all
ages can join in.
