Tonhalle St. Gallen
The Tonhalle St. Gallen is a concert hall opened in 1909 in St. Gallen, Switzerland . The concerts of the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra take place in the Tonhalle , which also serves as an orchestra for the St. Gallen Theater opposite . In addition, guest concerts and a variety of other events take place in the Tonhalle.
The Tonhalle is a cultural asset of cantonal importance (category B, KGS No. 8347) under cultural asset protection.
history
In the heyday of St. Gallen embroidery at the end of the 19th century, the city's population grew rapidly, and the library hall of the cantonal school building , which had previously been used for concerts by the St. Gallen Concert Association and events by other associations, was felt to be too small and inadequate in terms of its furnishings. A first attempt at building a concert hall in 1883 initially failed, and only a donation of a total of 150,000 francs from the textile manufacturer Colonel Kirchhofer set the building project in motion in 1899.
After a lengthy discussion of the location and delays due to additional costs, the building was built in 1906 by the “Tonhalle-Bau-Gesellschaft” on the Brühl (Museumstrasse 25), at the interface between the old town and the museum district. The design by the architect Julius Kunkler , who had been the first violin in the orchestra for eleven years, combined the neo-baroque style typical of concert buildings of the time with elements of Art Nouveau . The construction method was revolutionary for concert buildings: a reinforced concrete skeleton by the innovative civil engineer Robert Maillart served as the supporting structure , the outer cladding was made of plastered brick.
At the opening on December 4, 1909, the orchestra of the St. Gallen Concert Association played the 9th Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven with the participation of the city singers' association "Frohsinn" . The next day, a choir concert by Harmonie St. Gallen was on the program, and a gala banquet, a folk concert of the song wreath and the town music as well as a performance of the dramatic legend Faust's damnation of Berlioz by the "cheerfulness" completed the opening celebrations over the course of the following week.
In addition to the concert club orchestra and other local music organizations, orchestras from outside Germany soon played in the Tonhalle. The greatest names in the music world who were guests in the Tonhalle included the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Arthur Nikisch , the Munich Court Orchestra under Richard Strauss , the Vienna Philharmonic under Felix Weingartner and the Scala Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini .
In 1917, Othmar Schoeck became Kapellmeister of the Konzertverein's orchestra and performed the symphonies of Gustav Mahler and Anton Bruckner as well as works by Richard Strauss (often premieres in St. Gallen) in the following years until he left in 1944 , as well as more of his own Works. In addition to the subscription concerts, chamber music matinees and popular “folk concerts” were on the Tonhalle's program.
From 1941 to approx. 1990, the Tonhalle was used as a bar by the public fair OLMA once a year , which brought concerts to a standstill for up to a month.
When the Konzertverein's orchestra, which also functions as a theater orchestra and has since been renamed the Städtisches Orchester , was considerably enlarged in the course of the construction of the St. Gallen Theater at the end of the 1960s, the concerts continued to take place in the Tonhalle, which, however, was in need of renovation and was technically completely out of date . In 1983 the city of St. Gallen bought the house from the "Tonhalle-Gesellschaft", which was unable to finance these renovations and then dissolved. After a referendum on April 1, 1990, which resulted in more for the renovation of the concert hall, the building was renovated by the architects Bamert, Müller & Niedermann at a total cost of around 16 million francs. The stage was enlarged, the cloakrooms were redesigned and a new restaurant was added. From May 5th to 9th, 1993 the renovated house was inaugurated after three years of construction.
In 2010 the stage was redesigned and the hall acoustics were optimized with a diffractor in the dome called a “cloud of sound”.
Halls
- Great Hall
- The large hall on the first floor offers 891 seats in parquet and tier and can be reduced to 558 seats by dividing the hall.
- Small Hall
- The “small hall” is the area of the large hall that is separated by a partition. It is suitable for chamber music concerts and offers 253 seats.
- intermezzo
- The “Intermezzo” is a multi-purpose room on the ground floor that seats around 100 people.
literature
- Michael Bommer: 125 years of the St. Gallen Concert Association, 1877–2002 . St. Gallen 2002 (50 pages)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ B objects SG 2018 . Canton of St. Gallen KGS inventory, B objects, status: 1.1.2018 (no changes compared to previous year). In: babs.admin.ch / kulturgueterschutz.ch. Federal Office for Civil Protection FOCP - Department of Cultural Property Protection, January 1, 2018, p. 6, accessed on March 29, 2020. (PDF; 332 kB, updated annually, no changes for 2018).
- ↑ a b c d e Michael Bommer: 125 Years of the Concert Association St. Gallen 1877–2002 . St. Gallen 2002
- ^ A b c Daniel Studer (ed.): Art and culture guide Canton St. Gallen . Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2005, ISBN 3-7995-0153-3 , p. 72
- ↑ a b c d e f g The Tonhalle St. Gallen ( Memento of the original from July 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 47 ° 25 '39.7 " N , 9 ° 22' 47.4" E ; CH1903: 746450 / 254800