Genesis and Metamorphosis . I’d like to tell a story that concerns the wonderful project of LES ARTS GSTAAD. I need to tell it, because there is the threat that a very serious, technical, practical, mistake is going to be made inside the concert hall, the heart of this Arts Centre, which simply must not be allowed to happen: This so important, and so beautifully and imaginatively conceived, project by architect Rudy Ricciotti – itself a mountain with a flat top, with trees growing out of its wave-shaped walls, set in front of, and dipping a corner into, the mountain - must be given the necessary facilities to function faultlessly. . Around 20 years ago, it must have been in 1988 or 1989, I was in Berlin, the city of my birth, for Christmas as usual, and there it was that Wieka Muthesius, then an architectural student of Professor Alfred Grazioli’s, now his wife and colleague, showed me her student project of a concert hall inside a cave in the mountain in Gstaad. I was absolutely bowled over by this fantastic concept, this vision, and I regarded it at once, automatically, as real: This was no mere student project to me; this had to be BUILT! Wieka, I must explain, is the step-daughter of Gerhard Kastner, composer and harpsichordist, and son of my Berlin Primary School teacher (18te Gemeindeschule, Friedenau) 1928-1932. The year I came into his father’s class Gerhard was born, so I’ve known him all his life... . It so happened that I had a very intimate connection with Gstaad, through my mother’s best friend Gerda Van Leer, whose husband Vim had an engineering works in Welwyn Garden City. Gerda retired to her birthplace, the beautiful Swiss mountain village of Gstaad, where we often visited her. So I knew the Menuhin Festival, knew the Festival Tent, together with its problems, its echo, the rain and hail rattling on its cloth roof, and the aeroplanes buzzing overhead as musical accompaniment. And I always thought that the Festival, that Gstaad, needed, deserved, a proper permanent building for their major classical music events. . So every time I was in Berlin I would ask my friends Wieka and Freddy - Professor Grazioli - how the project was going, and every time the answer was in the negative: Nothing was happening. It remained an idea merely, a hope, a pile of drawings... . In July 2001 I was in Gstaad, and had a meeting with the then Director of the Menuhin Festival, Eleanor Hope, and I spoke with her about the project. We had been in correspondence, and she had written to me: “ How interesting that you have a friend who has a concept and plans for a concert hall and conference centre in a mountain – because this is precisely what Yehudi Menuhin wanted, and to this end he brought in the famous architect I.M.Pei to Gstaad some ten years ago. It came to nought, because no-one was willing to address the subject of money.” . So this marvellous idea simply died a death in Gstaad for lack of cash. . But the idea was kept alive in two other places, one in Germany, one in England. It was kept alive in Berlin, by Professor Grazioli who, a few years ago, again came to Gstaad with a group of his students, to plan a concert hall inside a mountain, this time at another spot, as the original site was no longer available. . And the idea was kept alive in London Soho. By me. . Now I had the brainwave that my old friend Markus Kappeler – Marlis, his wife, was the daughter of friends and neighbours of Gerda van Leer’s - Markus, as a business consultant, with his interests and contacts in Gstaad, was the man to bring this project to reality. So I spoke to him about it. But his reaction to my proposal was completely negative. He held that the project was too big for Gstaad, too expensive; that Gstaad did not have a sufficient number of hotel beds, did not have sufficient parking facilities. And I had to leave it at that… . But some time after that Markus sent me an email, requesting the names and addresses of my architect friends in Berlin. I was over the moon at this change of attitude, due no doubt to very positive reactions he had had to the project in the Gstaad business community, in the arts circles, and in official quarters. . I had now tried literally for years to bring together my architect friends Wieka and Freddy in Berlin, and my business consultant friend Markus in Gstaad. And in June 2005 I was in Gstaad, and at last had the opportunity to bring the two families together, as Wieka was in their chalet in nearby Les Diablerets with the two children. So I threw a luncheon party in a restaurant that was half way between Gstaad and Les Diablerets. And there I introduced Markus and Marlis to Wieka: Business consultant met architect! That luncheon could justifiably be defined as the celebration feast of the founding of the project Les Arts Gstaad. As Markus wrote to me in his email of 28 October 2009: „so hast Du mich und Wieka zusammengebracht, was letztlich das heutige Projekt auslöste.“ So you brought me and Wieka together, which finally triggered off today’s project.“ . Paragraph 5.2.2: Additional instructions to the architect . I stayed with Markus and Marlis in Gstaad last summer, and Markus showed me the instructions for the architectural competition. There I saw, in paragraph 5.2.2: . “Additional instructions: The Concert Hall must also be able to accommodate performances of ballet (good sightlines, no orchestra pit, orchestra in front of the stage must be possible.)” . When I saw this, with my lifetime’s professional experience of theatre, opera, classical concert promotion, music competitions and festivals, I was appalled. I immediately warned Markus that this was a gigantic technical, practical mistake, that it totally compromised the full and ideal use of the hall in the future. But, alas, my very serious criticism did not find a sympathetic ear: Markus said an orchestra pit was too expensive. So, sadly, paragraph 5.2.2 remained firmly in place. . After Gstaad my journey took me through Switzerland and France to Greece, from where I emailed Markus on 20 September, and mentioned that one surely did not wish to see the dancers’ feet through the conductor’s waving baton, through the heads of the orchestral players, and through the forest of harps and double basses. Furthermore, if ballet, why not also other forms of dance? Why not theatre? Why not opera? And once the Menuhin Festival had an adaptable hall at its disposal, it would obviously want to take the opportunity of diversifying its programme beyond the present concerts of classical music. And other promoters would wish to make the widest possible use of the hall, and would exploit the great advantages of a flexible stage. . But Paragraph 5.2.2 remained operative. No orchestra pit. . Now, I had the example of the Royal Festival Hall, (RFH) London, in front of me. It was conceived originally purely as a concert hall, with a simple podium for the orchestra. In 1951 I inspected it from roof to basement before it actually opened. It soon transpired that each summer, when the BBC presented its Promenade Concerts season, the RFH hosted a long ballet season on its podium, and the concert hall was used for a great range of events other than only for concerts. Last year the RFH was completely refurbished, and was fitted with a totally flexible stage, which I had shown to me by the Technical Director of the Southbank, Eddy Smith, and full details of which I sent to Markus. It consists of 11 separate sections, which are raised one meter for stage performances; an extra section is projected forward one meter; and 5 rows of seating are removed, in order to form an orchestra pit. The choir stalls are rolled away hydraulically, in order to produce a completely clear space for dramatic and dance performances. . And exactly that is needed in the concert hall of Les Arts Gstaad. And needed all the more, because Gstaad, Saanenland, will have at its disposal only the one large, made-to-measure space for a whole range of performances. . So the questions remains: Will paragraph 5.2.2 be cut? Will the concert hall get its orchestra pit? . -0- . Catalyst by Coincidence . It is a curious fact that I have twice in my life had the opportunity of acting as a messenger for Yehudi Menuhin. In Portsmouth, as City Arts Administrator und Festival Director, I took the idea and proposal of the Leader of the City Council for a Portsmouth Music competition to Menuhin, and he became the Artistic Director and Adviser, and the Chairman of the Jury, of what later became, and is still, the “City of London International String Quartet Competition”. . |
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