Hamburg, an old trading city, is Germany’s principal port and its second-biggest city. But in some areas it has punched below its weight: Its soccer team lags near the bottom of the Bundesliga, and few international tourists visit.

In recent decades, Hamburg has marketed itself as Germany’s capital of musicals, with fixtures like “The Lion King,” in German, presented in a theater that is reached by ferry. But the city’s robust classical-music scene is still overshadowed by those of Berlin and Munich. The new hall is expected to change that by raising the standards of the ensembles that will play in its inspiring and, it is hoped, acoustically excellent interiors. And it will attract touring orchestras.

The challenge remains to make the new building feel relevant to all the sectors of the city. Carsten Brosda, who heads Hamburg’s culture department, said in an interview that educational outreach projects were a priority. “Every schoolchild in Hamburg should visit the Elbphilharmonie at least once as part of their education,” he said.

Image The Elbphilharmonie, designed by Herzog & de Meuron. Credit Thies Rätzke

The institution is also seeking to help integrate the refugees who have entered the city in great numbers over the past two years. In March the Elbphilharmonie will present a festival dedicated to Syrian music and culture that will bring together residents and new arrivals in projects including a community choir and creative workshops.

Alan Gilbert, the New York Philharmonic’s music director and a frequent guest conductor in Hamburg, said in a phone interview that the Elbphilharmonie’s vision aligned perfectly with his own paradigm for successful 21st-century orchestras. “It’s about how they connect to the cities they serve,” he said. “And one condition for that is the existence of a perfectly appropriate physical space. What’s going on there is related to what’s potentially going to happen here in New York with the idea of redoing David Geffen Hall.”</s>This Feb. 2, 2016 file picture shows the glass-clad exterior of the Elbe Philharmonic Hall in Hamburg, Germany. Hamburg's spectacular new Elbphilharmonie concert hall is to finally host its first concert on Wednesday Jan. 11, 2017 night, several years behind schedule and far over the original budget.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Daily Herald.</s>BERLIN (AP) — Hamburg's spectacular new Elbphilharmonie concert hall is finally hosting its first concert, several years behind schedule and far over the original budget.

Germany's president and chancellor are among the guests expected at Wednesday night's maiden concert, to be conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock.

The landmark building with its wave-shaped roof and shiny glass facades was built on top of a former coffee warehouse jutting out into the harbor of Germany's second-biggest city. It's also home to a hotel. Its main concert hall can seat 2,100 people, none more than 30 meters (98 feet) from the conductor.

In this Jan. 10, 2017 images a laserboard displays a countdown with the words '1 DAY'TO'GO' on the outside of the new Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg, Germany. The concert hall opens on Jan. 11, 2017. (Christian Charisius/dpa via AP)

Construction started in 2007 and was originally supposed to be finished in 2010. The cost to taxpayers climbed from an initially planned 77 million euros to 789 million euros ($835 million).</s>Hamburg's spectacular new Elbphilharmonie concert hall is finally hosting its first concert on Wednesday night, several years behind schedule and far over the original budget.

President Joachim Gauck and Chancellor Angela Merkel are among the guests expected at the maiden concert, to be conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock.

The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester will play music from the renaissance to the present, including works by Beethoven and Wagner and a new piece by German composer Wolfgang Rihm.

The grand opening was sold out quickly and the almost 500,000 tickets for the first half of this year are also long gone, but curious onlookers were invited to follow a light show on the building's facade.

Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz stressed that the concert hall should be accessible to everyone.

"I firmly intend that ... all children who go to school in Hamburg will have once heard a concert at the Elbphilharmonie," Scholz said, according to the German news agency dpa.

The landmark building with its wave-shaped roof and shiny glass facades was built on top of a former cocoa and coffee warehouse dating back to 1960's jutting out into the harbor of Germany's biggest port.

Overlooking Hamburg harbour, it evokes a ship floating on water and is part of a development that uses old warehouses to create residential and office space.

It's also home to a hotel with 244 beds and houses 44 apartments. There's an outside platform that is accessible without charge to everyone.

The main concert hall can seat 2,100 people, none more than 30 meters (98 feet) from the conductor.

The stage is in the center, surrounded by terraced tiers. The hall is covered by plaster paneling, the so-called "white skin," and sits atop 362 bags of feathers for sound insulation. It has been praised for its impressive acoustics.

Construction started in 2007 and was originally supposed to be finished in 2010. The cost to taxpayers climbed from an initially planned 77 million euros to 789 million euros ($835 million).

But the delays and cost increases were set aside for the grand opening.

"Hamburg is setting an example for the great significance of art and culture in a free society," Scholz said.

The Hanseatic trading port of Hamburg, now a media hub with chic shopping arcades as well as its red light district around the Reeperbahn, hopes the hall will help draw tourists to Germany's second-biggest city.

Architects Herzog & de Meuron have called the Elbphilharmonie a city in itself, with restaurants, a hotel and a 37 metre-high plaza between the brick and glass layers open to the public, offering a panorama of the city.

The opening has come as a relief to Germans whose reputation for efficiency has been dented by delays on infrastructure projects, most notably Berlin's new airport.

German media have praised the Elbphilharmonie's ambition to perform a range of music, from traditional symphony concerts and operas to modern improvisations and electro music.

"In post-war Germany, culture was something like spiritual self-defence against a dark past and a murky present. That has changed. Today it is rather a confirmation that times are better," wrote the Sueddeutsche Zeitung in an editorial.</s>Herzog & de Meuron’s Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg, Germany has opened after 16 years of planning and construction, which was held back by financial and legal issues. The grand opening of the concert hall, taking place on January 11 and 12, 2017, features inaugural concerts and a light display on the façade of the building.

As Hamburg’s newest cultural destination, the building was inaugurated by German Federal President Joachim Gauck, Mayor of Hamburg Olaf Scholz, architect Jacques Herzog from Herzog & de Meuron, and General and Artistic Director Christoph Lieben-Seutter.

More than 4,500 guests from Germany and abroad will take part in the opening concerts in the Grand Hall and Recital Hall today and tomorrow, including Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, various high-ranking political and cultural leaders from around the world, and 1,000 visitors who won tickets to the event, out of 220,000 entrants from 73 countries.

On both opening days, music will be made available outside of the building for all to see and hear, accompanied by a projection of colored lights onto the building’s façade.

“With its wavy lines on the warehouse foundation, the first sketches for the concert hall were first put to paper in 2001 by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron. In 2003, the Hamburg populace were given their first glimpse of the development plans […] In 2007, the citizens of Hamburg approved the construction, which then began in April 2007. At the end of 2012 and after many challenges, the City of Hamburg concluded an agreement for the complete reorganization of the project with the construction company Hochtief. Since then, the project has progressed according to schedule. On October 31, 2016, Hochtief handed over the completed Elbphilharmonie to the City of Hamburg.”

A 360-degree live stream will be available on the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg YouTube page.</s>The striking Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, home to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, opens its doors for the first time today and tomorrow. It houses three concert halls—including the 2,100-seat Grand Concert Hall and the more intimate 550-seat Recital Hall—places to eat and drink, a hotel, and a public plaza. It will also serve as a venue for multiple music-education programs. Enjoy a slideshow of the new crystalline structure.</s>Hamburg’s new concert hall is Germany’s latest austerity-defying architectural bobby-dazzler. But what about the music? How do you mark the opening of a lustrous new hall that is now, after all the arguments and the overspend, the pride of Hamburg? The conventional thing to do would be to programme a mighty work of the heavens — Beethoven’s Ninth, Haydn’s Creation, or maybe throw down the gauntlet with a specially commissioned new piece.

Thomas Hengelbrock and his renamed NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester took a different approach for an opening night attended by German president Joachim Gauck, who made a speech, and chancellor Angela Merkel – back in her native city for the occasion – who didn’t. The opening ceremony interwove speeches and a tribute to Hamburg’s two native musical giants, Mendelssohn and Brahms, with the Roy Blas overture and the finale of the second symphony respectively.

But the main concert that followed was above all a tribute to Hengelbrock’s imagination and the possibilities of the hall. The first notes, floated from up in the balconies, were Britten’s oboe invocation of Pan, from the Ovid Metamorphoses, a beguiling choice. This opened a sequence, skilfully managed by Hengelbrock to avoid interruptions for applause, of modern and late-renaissance pieces — Dutilleux then Cavalieri, Zimmermann followed by Praetorius, Liebermann eliding into Caccini, with the countertenor Philippe Jaroussky caressing the notes from high in the hall. The closing movement of Messiaen’s Turangalîla brought the first half to a storming close.

Hengelbrock pulled a second sequential trick in part two, opening with a perfunctory account of the prelude to Wagner’s Parsifal which exposed the limitations of the home orchestra, before moving without a break into Wolfgang Rihm’s new orchestral song cycle Reminiszenz. Commissioned for the occasion in honour of the Hamburg writer Hans Henny Jahnn, and stylishly sung by the tenor Pavol Breslik, Rihm’s characteristically eclectic setting of some notably bleak texts then gave way to the least bleak of all musical settings, the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth. Hengelbrock’s account was business-like rather than truly joyous but a fine quartet of soloists including Sir Bryn Terfel gave the account something special to grace what is without question a hall to celebrate.</s>BERLIN (AP) — Hamburg’s spectacular new Elbphilharmonie concert hall finally hosted its first concert on Wednesday night, several years behind schedule and far over the original budget.

President Joachim Gauck and Chancellor Angela Merkel were among the guests at the maiden concert that was conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock.

The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester is playing music from the renaissance to the present, including works by Beethoven and Wagner and a new piece by German composer Wolfgang Rihm.

The grand opening was sold out quickly and the almost 500,000 tickets for the first half of this year are also long gone, but curious onlookers were invited to follow a light show on the building’s facade.

Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz stressed that the concert hall should be accessible to everyone.

“I firmly intend that … all children who go to school in Hamburg will have once heard a concert at the Elbphilharmonie,” Scholz said, according to the German news agency dpa.

The landmark building with its wave-shaped roof and shiny glass facades was built on top of a former cocoa and coffee warehouse jutting out into the harbor of Germany’s second-biggest city.

It’s also home to a hotel with 244 beds and houses 44 apartments. There’s an outside platform that is accessible without charge to everyone.

The main concert hall can seat 2,100 people, none more than 30 meters (100 feet) from the conductor.

The stage is in the center, surrounded by terraced tiers. The hall is covered by plaster paneling, the so-called “white skin,” and sits atop 362 bags of feathers for sound insulation. It has been praised for its impressive acoustics.

Construction started in 2007 and was originally supposed to be finished in 2010. The cost to taxpayers climbed from an initially planned 77 million euros to 789 million euros ($835 million).

But the delays and cost increases were set aside for the grand opening.

“Hamburg is setting an example for the great significance of art and culture in a free society,” Scholz said.</s>BERLIN: Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie concert hall opens on Wednesday, delivering one of Germany's most prestigious 21st century cultural projects: albeit some seven years late and busting its budget.

The new landmark, with a red-brick base and glass structure on top, curved windows and a roof that resembles the crest of a wave, is built on a 1960s warehouse that stored tea, tobacco and cocoa.

Overlooking Hamburg harbour, it evokes a ship floating on water and is part of a development that uses old warehouses to create residential and office space in Germany's biggest port.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, a regular at the annual Wagner festival in Bayreuth, and President Joachim Gauck will attend the inauguration on Wednesday evening. The programme includes works by Beethoven, Cavalieri and Wagner.

Music-lovers are keen to judge the acclaimed acoustics in the main hall which has 2,100 seats and where no member of the audience is more than 30 metres (yards) from the conductor.

The Hanseatic trading port of Hamburg, now a media hub with chic shopping arcades as well as its red light district around the Reeperbahn, hopes the hall will help draw tourists to Germany's second-biggest city.

"The construction of the Elbphilharmonie is an invitation to the world to come to Hamburg to visit this extraordinary building and experience the power of music," said Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz.

Architects Herzog & de Meuron have called the Elbphilharmonie a city in itself, with restaurants, a hotel and a 37 metre-high plaza between the brick and glass layers open to the public, offering a panorama of the city.

The cost to the city was put at about 75 million euros (US$80 million) back in 2003 but has ballooned to some 790 million euros due in part to delays and legal disputes. It had been due to open in 2009.

The opening has come as a relief to Germans whose reputation for efficiency has been dented by delays on infrastructure projects, most notably Berlin's new airport.

German media have praised the Elbphilharmonie's ambition to perform a range of music, from traditional symphony concerts and operas to modern improvisations and electro music.

"In post-war Germany, culture was something like spiritual self-defence against a dark past and a murky present. That has changed. Today it is rather a confirmation that times are better," wrote the Sueddeutsche Zeitung in an editorial.</s>Today, a ceremony and the inaugural concert marked the official opening of the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. The concert hall is the new musical heart of the northern German metropolis. The spectacular venue uses its architecture and its programme to combine artistic excellence with the utmost in openness and accessibility. Designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron and perched between the city and the harbour, the Elbphilharmonie unites the former Kaispeicher warehouse with a new glass structure featuring wave-like peaks and valleys on top. In addition to three concert halls, among other features, the building is home to a hotel and a viewing platform which is open to the public and which underscores the new landmark's character as a »house for all«.

A ceremony in the Grand Hall marked the beginning of the opening festivities. For the occasion, addresses were held by German Federal President Joachim Gauck, First Mayor of Hamburg Olaf Scholz, Jacques Herzog from Herzog & de Meuron and General and Artistic Director Christoph Lieben-Seutter. Guests included German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and numerous other high-ranking representatives from the worlds of politics and culture.

In the Grand Hall, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under the direction of its Chief Conductor Thomas Hengelbrock performed with the choir of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, as well as renowned soloists such as Philippe Jaroussky (countertenor), Hanna-Elisabeth Müller (soprano), Wiebke Lehmkuhl (mezzo-soprano), Pavol Breslik (tenor) and Bryn Terfel (bass-baritone).

One of the highlights was the first-ever performance of a work commissioned specially for the occasion by the German contemporary composer Wolfgang Rihm titled »Reminiszenz. Triptychon und Spruch in memoriam Hans Henny Jahnn für Tenor und Großes Orchester«. As a follow-up, the orchestra played a series of related works from several different centuries which gave the audience a first, powerful glimpse of the outstanding acoustics of the Grand Hall, which are the result of the efforts of Japanese star acoustics expert Yasuhisa Toyota. The evening concerts came to a head with Beethoven's »Symphony No. 9 in D minor«, whose final choral movement »Freude schöner Götterfunken« was the perfect expression of the festive atmosphere of the new concert hall's opening event.

During the concert, the facade of the Elbphilharmonie became a canvas for a one-of-a-kind light display. The music played in the Grand Hall was transformed into colours and shapes in real time and projected onto the building's facade. Thousands of onlookers beheld the Elbphilharmonie - Hamburg's new landmark - in all its glory before the impressive backdrop of the city and the harbour. You can find more information at http://www.elbphilharmonie.com.
The Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg, Germany is officially inaugurated with light shows and concerts of the Elbphilharmonie Orchestra.