Baden-Baden music pavilion
The Baden-Baden music pavilion was built in 1858 according to plans by Charles Polycarpe Séchan and was used until 1912 for summer open-air concerts on the spa promenade.
history
From around 1800, systematic musical accompaniment for spa guests developed in Baden-Baden. In front of the left wing of the Kurhaus , a wooden kiosk was built on the Kurpromenade in 1824 to accommodate the spa orchestra, which had a maximum of sixteen musicians. In 1858 the casino leaseholder Edouard Bénazet commissioned the construction of the music pavilion at the same location. The locksmith M. Levéque built the polygon with sixteen corners made of wrought iron according to plans by the Parisian theater architect Charles Polycarpe Séchan, who was involved in the plans for the Opéra Garnier from 1860 and who had already designed the interior of the Kurhaus in Baden-Baden.
Séchan resorted to stylistic elements of the French Régence , which were later wrongly interpreted as Moorish . A double flight of stairs with forged iron railings led to a stone platform that, from 1872, accommodated 42 orchestra musicians. The sixteen iron arches were surmounted by a dome designed according to acoustic rules. It remains to be seen to what extent Hector Berlioz, who von Bénazet gave an annual concert in the Kurhaus from 1856 to 1863, was involved in the design of the pavilion. Another new feature was gas lighting , which made it possible to hold concerts in the evenings and at night. Longitudinal striped awnings in the arcades offered protection from the sun. The system became legendary for its far-reaching and harmonious sound distribution. In 1912 the music pavilion was demolished for the subsequent construction of a concert shell , a loss that Otto Flake repeatedly addressed.
orchestra
In the music pavilion, the spa orchestra and the rival bands of local Baden, Prussian and Austrian regiments played in alternating succession. The entertainment concerts were open to the public and freely accessible. French compositions made up 11% of the repertoire. After the opening of the music pavilion in July 1859, the first orchestra conductor was the Bohemian Miroslav Könnemann , previously Kapellmeister of the Austrian regiment 28 Benedek stationed in Rastatt . In 1872 the orchestra was expanded from 32 to 42 musicians. The sick man gave his final concert on April 13, 1890. After an interim he was followed in 1892 by Paul Hein.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Charles Brainne: Bade. season 1859. In: Baigneuses et buveurs d'eau. Librairie nouvelle, 1860, p. 143.
- ↑ Cf. Matthias Brzoska, Hermann Hofer, Nicole K. Strohmann: Hector Berlioz: a French in Germany. Laaber, 2005, p. 199.
- ^ Matthias Brzoska, Hermann Hofer, Nicole K. Strohmann: Hector Berlioz: a French in Germany. Laaber, 2005, pp. 203ff.
Coordinates: 48 ° 45 ′ 37 ″ N , 8 ° 14 ′ 15 ″ E