When L’Auditori de Barcelona was inaugurated 25 years ago on March 22, citizens were not sure if there would be enough classical audiences to fill it, if its acoustics would be good or if it would attract big names in orchestral conducting. Even Alicia de Larrocha, in charge of playing music on that first day, let it slip that those of her generation were not expected, since it was on the outskirts of the city.
A quarter of a century later, distances have been shortened and that 22@ district, then under construction, has experienced a cultural revolution. Rafael Moneo’s “austere looking” building, as its current director, Robert Brufau, describes it when he receives visits from his counterparts in European venues, is today a pole of attraction for both the public and artists of multiple genres, as well as act as a promoter of new creation.
But the wish list didn’t end there. Projected in the exciting context of the Cultural Olympiad, the facility was born at the beginning of the 21st century as the great symphonic hall that did not yet exist in the city. It was 1999, just two years ago, the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, designed by Ricardo Bofill, had opened right next door. And the Moneo facilities would later accommodate Esmuc and the Music Museum. Having young music students is the best thing that could happen, the architect then pointed out: they would give the life he needed to the building.
“In the Olympic context, Barcelona needed to claim itself as the European capital, and it was by observing the Cité de la Musique in Paris that it was decided to create the first symphony hall, because it was necessary to respond to a musical sector that was bustling in the city and that needed to grow. “said Brufau when presenting the programming that they have designed during the month of March to give color to the splendor.
From its beginnings, urgent needs were already raised related to the acoustics of the Pau Casals room because, even though it is bombastic, it poses listening problems among the musicians on stage when it comes to large formations. And this 2024, the definitive solution proposed by Eckhard Kahle, of Kahe Acoustics, and the AIA architecture studio will finally be reached, presumably in the summer. Absorbent panels of wood or fabric will be installed on the roof of the stage shell and the side walls of the stage will also be inclined.
“It turns out that the fact that these walls do not reproduce the inclination of the side balconies of this room generates acoustic problems. So we will look for that same inclination in the current structure that the musicians have on either side,” indicates the director of the room. . “In addition, we will dampen the sound of brass and percussion with absorbent panels in the space on the stage that was originally supposed to be occupied by an organ. And in the wood that separates the stalls and the first floor and the first and second floors, we will also install wooden panels.
Another piece of good news is the photovoltaic installation of 1,197 panels that occupy the roof of the building and that since the end of last year have generated 15% of the electrical energy consumed by public facilities. Its annual production of 678,400 net kwh is a record in Catalonia. Its cost of half a million euros has been covered by Inaem through the agreement of cultural and scientific capital of Barcelona.
L’Auditori has made an investment of around 7.5 million, of which 3.3 million have been in projects to improve sustainability. “We are consuming the same or less than in 1999, when the building was inaugurated, due to the optimization work that has been carried out, they say. In fact, another 10% of electricity consumption is covered by other sustainable solutions such as solar filters.
“The current Auditori is a fundamental piece among the stage facilities,” said Josep Vives, general director of Cultural Promotion and Libraries of the Generalitat. “With the increase to 1.5% of the budgets allocated to culture, the Government was able to increase the contribution to the room by 17% in 2022 and 9.5 in 2023, and now, the objective of reaching 2% will allow us to make another effort.” For the moment, the public contribution percentages are maintained: 60% comes from the City Council and 40% from the Generalitat.
For his part, the Councilor for Culture, Xavier Marcé, recalled that in 1999 there was a great debate about how L’Auditori had to face relations with the main actors in the private music sector, “and I consider that all the directors up to The moment, starting with Miquel Lumbierres and then Joan Oller, Oriol Pérez Treviño, Joaquim Garrigosa and now Robert Brufau, have maintained an interesting game by developing classical music to end the myth of cultured culture and the distance it creates with people , and at the same time they have established a relationship with the private sector for external programming of all styles of music.
After Barcelona has been intervened on many fronts with the superblocks project, the impediment to not building the much desired Plaza de Les Arts that connects TNC and Auditori does not seem to be budgetary… “Of course it is a debate how to revalue a part of this area and its deployment in Les Glòries that gives the entire axis of facilities as a whole a new virtuality. I imagine that it was not properly conceived at the time, it could have had an urban planning approach from the start. For the director of L’Auditori it is, in any case, “an issue to be solved in the coming years and we are working on potential solutions.”
