The major classical music venue for Rome…read more
The music that is booked there is a mix.
Much of it is outstanding.
We have heard magic. We have heard "leave-while-you-cans".
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Architectually, the complex is an epic fail.
Italy has tremendous architecture.
The Citta Della Musica most assuredly does not make the A list.
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The Auditorium Complex was meant to be a cross between London's South Bank and London's Barbican.
It is like the South Bank because there are many concert halls involved in related buildings.
It is like the Barbican because the complex is Brutalist.
Make that failed Brutalist.
Brutalism when it works combines two fascinating aspects.
1) An exterior profile that is striking and powerful. You can't get the basic shape out of your mind.
2. Complex interweaving interiors that are non-linear, difficult to manoever, but expose interlinkages of space in non-trivial surprising ways.
Rome's Citta della Musica flunks majorly on both counts.
1 Elaborated) The profiles are three egg concrete egg shapes.
They look like every basketball stadium you have seen in the United States.
Nothing new or exciting in the shape.
The architect did not allow for what water would do to the concrete.
So what was once new and resplendent and white is now gray and dingy.
On a powerful form such as Boston City Hall or the Barbican,
Vertical sharp ridges on the walls or other parallel forms draw water away from the concrete allowing the concrete to maintain its original color.
Plus the form is bold enough to be interesting regardless of the color of the concrete.
Here you just get Cleveland blah.
2 Elaborated) There is no real twisting or turning of forms.
Just inconvenience with no spatial discovery.
The snack bars for all of the many halls is on the far right of the complex. So for many shows, refreshments are simply too far away to get. There is no great discovery in having to walk through three identical lobbies to get to water when you are thirsty.
Most of the halls involve mandatory climbing of endless stairs.
And I do mean endless. And I do mean mandatory.
Anyone who has been to an old school concert hall like Carnegie Hall and has bought the cheap seats knows all about climbing endless stairs to get to your seat.
Nothing new or innovative here.
3) The two plusses - credit where credit is due.
3a) The lobbies are in beautiful red brick. They are high, deep, and expansive.
Those are wonderful public spaces.
3b) The acoustics are outstanding.
Most of the great European symphony concert halls have great acoustics. So this is not so distinctive.
Still, there are some surprisingly dead concert halls in the United States.
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For the right performance of a Haydn symphony, a Strauss tone poem or a Szymanowski concerto, none of the failed Brutalism will matter.
Music assuages the imperfections of architecture.
