5 years of the Elbphilharmonie: The gala week

2.9 million concertgoers (up to the corona lockdown in March 2020) and a range of music that is internationally unique in terms of quality, density and variety: five years after its inauguration, probably no one will dispute that the Elbphilharmonie has ushered in a new era. General & Artistic Director Christoph Lieben-Seutter recalls: »It was our great hope that this spectacular building would manage to engender enthusiasm for music, even for unusual music that people sometimes find hard to approach. But the extent to which our hopes came true has surpassed even the wildest dreams.«

The international response to the concert hall's fifth birthday was no less overwhelming: creative congratulations and euphoric press reports paid tribute to the Elbphilharmonie's five-year success story. The Elbphilharmonie itself celebrated the occasion with a sparkling gala week which reflected the variety and quality of programme that the concert hall has stood for since it opened. 

»How appropriate,«, says pianist Kirill Gerstein, »that we are playing modern classics in a concert hall that has become a modern classic itself.« He is already sitting at the keyboard and getting ready to give his encore, but then he turns towards the audience once more and addresses a few words to them. There are many invited guests in the audience, many members of staff and a few lucky winners of a raffle. They all clap and agree with him. How appropriate, celebrating the Elbphilharmonie's fifth birthday not with Beethoven's »Götterfunken«, the divine spark from the Ninth Symphony, but with contemporary music. The Elbphilharmonie  is a modern concert hall that aims to write music history – to go on writing it.

The programme performed by the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and its chief conductor at this gala concert features works by John Adams, Thomas Adès and Esa-Pekka Salonen. The concert opens with two fanfares, played by a number of musicians standing at different places amidst the audience to make the dimensions of this extraordinary room audible. Then the auditorium seems to literally take off in Adams's »Short Ride in a Fast Machine«. After this, one of the beautiful concert grands is rolled on to the stage, and legendary pianist Kirill Gerstein appears to play the impressive piano concerto by Thomas Adès. A breathtaking performance which brings him several minutes of applause. As an encore, he plays György Ligeti – modern, Hamburg-style.

After the interval, the music stands are pushed closer together, revealing a whole battetry of unusual percussion instruments. It's a large orchestra that comes on to the stage to perform Esa-Pekka Salonen's monumental »Wing on Wing«. Two top singers are part of the ensemble, and they in turn move through the auditorium. Half an hour of powerful music captivates the anniversary guests, and the composer is present in person to receive the thunderous applause: conductor Alan Gilbert calls Salonen up on to the concert platform to share the moment.
 

The anniversary evening itself with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra was accompanied by a whole week of celebrations in both the Elbphilharmonie concert halls: in addition to the big Hamburg orchestras, there were many international guests, including Sir Simon Rattle and his London Symphony Orchestra, Early Music icon Jordi Savall and Daniel Barenboim with the Staatskapelle Berlin. Charles Llyod and John Scofield contributed two exquisite jazz gigs, and of course titular organist Iveta Apkalna was on board as well: she wished the Elbphilharmonie »Happy birthday« almost exactly five years to the day after her first solo recital in the Grand Hall.