On 6 March 2006, the French minister of Culture and communication Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, the mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë, and the director of the Cité de la Musique, Laurent Bayle, announced the beginning of the construction of the Philharmonie de Paris. This performance complex, originally to have contained both a concert hall and an opera house, was the belated realisation of a vision by the renowned French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez.
10 year Anniversary of the Philharmonie de Paris
Boulez Vision
Philharmonie de Paris
Boulez had envisioned a space in support of contemporary and classical music with acoustics to accommodate different performance types. He wanted the Philharmonie to be a cultural hub for the 21st century, offering not only concerts but also a wide range of music-related events.
These would include workshops, conferences, and educational outreach programmes. As such, this dedicated space would foster the creation, exploration, and performance of cultural activities housed in a complex reflecting modernity in both innovation and functionality.
Realisation
Pierre Boulez
By April 2007, architect Jean Nouvel won the design competition for the building. The city’s newest concert hall would join the sprawling complex of the Parc de la Villette that encompasses the Paris Conservatoire and the Cité de la Musique, which houses two smaller halls. It is located in the northeast of Paris, just inside the Boulevard Périphérique. The principal aim of this location was to draw an audience not only from the elite neighbourhood flanking the Seine, but also from the poorer suburbs.
This bridge between the city and suburbs is a strange and not exactly beautiful building. The exterior, cast in aluminium, with its interlocking grey and black pieces, evokes a flow of birds. However, it has a rather menacing presence with a bulging midsection that, to quote Alex Ross, “swells out from a rectilinear frame in twisting, tubular shapes, like the intestines of a sci-fi monster.”
14 January 2015
The main building, Philharmonie 1, opened on 14 January 2015 with a performance of the Orchestre de Paris of Faure’s Requiem, conducted by Paavo Järvi. It was dedicated to honour the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shootings, which had taken place in the city just a week earlier. As expected, the project ran into inevitable delays and cost overruns, and it was clear that construction would continue for a while.
Jean Nouvel boycotted opening night because the Philharmonie had taken him to court to compensate for serious time and cost overruns. The building had been delivered two years late and at double the estimated cost. In turn, Nouvel accused management of sabotage, and he is suing the Philharmonie for what he calls a “disproportionate and unprecedented fine” that would force his firm to go out of business.
The Grande Salle Pierre Boulez
The Grande salle Pierre Boulez (Symphonic Hall)
The Grande Salle, named after Pierre Boulez, comprises 2,400 seats with the possibility of expansion to accommodate up to 3,650 visitors. The “vineyard-style” arrangements, with listeners seated in pod-like balconies floating about a square-shaped stage, have become de rigueur. That kind of arrangement, however, manages to retain a real sense of intimacy, with all listeners closely peering down at the musical activities.
The firm of Marshall Day, the lead acousticians enclosed the auditorium within an interior shell, which adds reverberation without making instrumental voices indistinct. According to critics, “the result is an acoustic at once precise and warm, and it has certainly been able to seduce new audiences.”
10th Anniversary Concert
Klaus Mäkelä © Marco Borggreve
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Philharmonie de Paris, Klaus Mäkelä and Gustavo Dudamel presented an eclectic programme that reflects themes of creativity, innovation, and cultural cross-pollination. It was recorded on 10 January 2025 and opened with Initiale by Pierre Boulez. The work mirrors the spirit of innovation of Boulez’s vision while simultaneously honouring the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
Beethoven’s overture “The Consecration of the House” first sounded on 3 October 1822 at the reopening of the “Theater in der Josefstadt” in Vienna. Apparently, it reflected much that was visionary and new in Beethoven’s approach to composition at that time, and it is indeed a fitting selection for the 10th anniversary of the Philharmonie de Paris as well.
Gustavo Dudamel
The Poulenc Gloria was performed at the Philharmonie de Paris in 2019 as part of the celebrations surrounding the 60th anniversary of its composition, and this spectacular venue is particularly well suited to showcase the work’s stunning choral and orchestral textures. The celebration concludes with Ravel’s orchestrated version of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, perhaps serving as a metaphor for the journey of the Philharmonie de Paris itself. And, of course, in 2025, we also celebrate the 150th birthday of Maurice Ravel.
10 year Anniversary of the Philharmonie de Paris
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