“A new concert hall—a Brutalist beauty, La Seine Musicale, on L’île Seguin just west of Paris” opened this week, writes Mary Winston Nicklin in Tuesday’s (4/25) Conde Nast Traveler. “The island was home to tanneries, riverside guingettes (dance halls) … then … the Renault automobile factory [which] closed in 1992… Architect Jean Nouvel … [overseeing] the island’s renewal … [preserved] the image of the old factory and its Brutalist concrete shell, while [adding public] promenades and gardens….. Like a gigantic ship anchored in the river, the venue is distinguished by a solar sail … ‘I wanted to open the building to the general public,’ says architect Shigeru Ban…. The venue’s Grande Seine, a 6,000-seat performance hall, will bring in a bit of everything (concerts, musicals, ballets), while the bijou auditorium … is home to the Insula Orchestra, led by Laurence Equilbey…. La Seine Musicale’s new artistic director [is] Jean-Luc Choplin … widely credited with resurrecting [Paris’s] Théâtre du Châtelet…. From the expansive rooftop garden, the only sounds are birds chirping, boats plying the waters below, and the tramway gliding by on the banks of the Seine.” Click here to read Symphony magazine’s article about new concert halls.
Posted April 26, 2017
