Festhalle Viersen
Encyclopedia
The Festival Hall Viersen (Festhalle Viersen) is well known for its theater- and concert programme featuring reputable theater-and music ensembles. It also is the annual venue of the UMB World Three-cushion Championship
of national teams as well as of the annual international Jazz Festival
in Viersen
, a town located in the German Lower Rhine region
.
shows elements of classicism
such as columns, pilaster
s or triangular pediments. The hall inside the building can seat about a thousand visitors. In 1955 the trade journal Baukunst und Werkform initiated an opinion poll among 20 well known conductors asking for the concert hall with the best acoustics
worldwide. For Germany they named two houses, the Bremen concert hall Die Glocke and the Festival Hall Viersen.
, later WDR
recorded and or broadcasted many symphony
concerts taking place in the hall with its own NWDR-Rundfunkorchester as well as radio shows such as Das ideale Brautpaar legendary for the mid-fifties. The outstanding acoustic drew many internationally well known conductors, such as Wilhelm Furtwängler
, Thomas Beecham
or Ferenc Fricsay
, and orchestras like for instance the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Sergiu Celibidache
or Herbert von Karajan
or international star solists like Gidon Kremer
, Lang Lang
, Nigel Kennedy
und David Garrett
into the Festival Hall. Famous theater companies used the Festival Hall for their guest performances in the region like for instance the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus
with the famous actor and director Gustav Gründgens.
UMB World Three-cushion Championship
The UMB World Three-cushion Championship is a professional carom billiards tournament in the discipline of three-cushion billiards, organized mostly annually by the Union Mondiale de Billard...
of national teams as well as of the annual international Jazz Festival
Viersen Jazz Festival
The Viersen Jazz Festival is a music festival held every autumn in Viersen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was established in 1969 as 1. Internationales Niederrheinisches Jazz Festival.- History :...
in Viersen
Viersen
Viersen is the capital of the district of Viersen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.-Geography:Viersen is situated approximately 8 km north-west of Mönchengladbach, 15 km south-west of Krefeld and 20 km east of Venlo ....
, a town located in the German Lower Rhine region
Lower Rhine region (Germany)
The Lower Rhine region or Niederrhein is a region around the Lower Rhine section of the river Rhine in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany between approximately Neuss and Düsseldorf in the South and the Dutch border around Emmerich in the North...
.
History
In 1913 the Festhalle was completed according to the plans of the municipal architect Eugen Frielingsdorf. The factory owner Josef Kaiser, who had the headquarters of his locally founded company Kaiser’s Kaffeegeschäft in Viersen, initiated the built of the building by doning 130.000 Reichsmark on the occasion of his appointment to royal Kommerzienrat i.e. Councilor of Commerce. Up until 1925 the building was used as projected, as a multipurpose hall i. e. as a gym hall as well as for cultural events or as a ball room. The idea to use it as a gym hall was soon after dropped. During the World War II the festival hall, contrary to many others in Germany was luckily only slightly damaged and could soon be used again. In the course of time it was several times renovated and-or redesigned, for instance in 1939/40 for propaganda purposes of the NSDAP. In 1997 thanks to the efforts of the „Festhallen-Förderverein“ i.e. friends of the Festival Hall it was provided with, among other things new seats and state-of-the-art stagecraft.Building
The facadeFacade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
shows elements of classicism
Classicism
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint...
such as columns, pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s or triangular pediments. The hall inside the building can seat about a thousand visitors. In 1955 the trade journal Baukunst und Werkform initiated an opinion poll among 20 well known conductors asking for the concert hall with the best acoustics
Architectural acoustics
Architectural acoustics is the science of noise control within buildings. The first application of architectural acoustics was in the design of opera houses and then concert halls. More widely, noise suppression is critical in the design of multi-unit dwellings and business premises that generate...
worldwide. For Germany they named two houses, the Bremen concert hall Die Glocke and the Festival Hall Viersen.
Events
Between 1947–1949 due to the war damage on other concert halls and the splendid acoustics, the big radio station NWDRNordwestdeutscher Rundfunk
Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk was the organization responsible for public broadcasting in the German Länder of Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia from 22 September 1945 until 31 December 1955. Until 1954, it was also responsible for broadcasting in West Berlin...
, later WDR
Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Westdeutscher Rundfunk is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the consortium of German public-broadcasting institutions, ARD...
recorded and or broadcasted many symphony
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
concerts taking place in the hall with its own NWDR-Rundfunkorchester as well as radio shows such as Das ideale Brautpaar legendary for the mid-fifties. The outstanding acoustic drew many internationally well known conductors, such as Wilhelm Furtwängler
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Wilhelm Furtwängler was a German conductor and composer. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. By the 1930s he had built a reputation as one of the leading conductors in Europe, and he was the leading conductor who remained...
, Thomas Beecham
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
or Ferenc Fricsay
Ferenc Fricsay
Ferenc Fricsay was a Hungarian conductor. From 1960 until his death, he was an Austrian citizen.Fricsay was born in Budapest in 1914 and studied music under Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Ernst von Dohnányi, and Leo Weiner. Fricsay had a meteoric rise to fame, making his first appearance as a...
, and orchestras like for instance the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Sergiu Celibidache
Sergiu Celibidache
- Biography :Celibidache was born in Roman, Romania, and began his studies in music with the piano, after which he studied music, philosophy and mathematics in Bucharest, Romania and then in Paris...
or Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
or international star solists like Gidon Kremer
Gidon Kremer
Gidon Kremer is a Latvian violinist and conductor. In 1980 he left the USSR and settled in Germany.-Biography:Kremer was born in Riga to parents of German-Jewish and Latvian-Swedish origins. He began playing the violin at the age of four, receiving instruction from his father and his grandfather,...
, Lang Lang
Lang Lang
Lang Lang may refer to:* Lang Lang , Chinese pianist* Lang Lang, Victoria, a town in Australia* Lang Lang River, a river in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia* A character from the Japanese manga Steam Detectives-See also:...
, Nigel Kennedy
Nigel Kennedy
Nigel Kennedy is a British born violinist and violist. He made his early career in the classical field, and he has performed and recorded most of the major violin concerti...
und David Garrett
David Garrett
David Garrett may refer to:*David Garrett *David C. Garrett, Jr., American businessman*David Garrett , former New Zealand politician*David Garrett , American filmmaker...
into the Festival Hall. Famous theater companies used the Festival Hall for their guest performances in the region like for instance the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus
Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus
The Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus is a theatre building in Düsseldorf, with four auditoria.- External links :*...
with the famous actor and director Gustav Gründgens.
Site
The Festival Hall is situated in the center of Alt-Viersen at the Hermann-Hülser-Place.Options for use
- Additional to concerts and theatre performances the Festival Hall is often used for CDCompact DiscThe Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
-productions because of the excellent acoustics. - Since 1990 it also is the annual venue of the UMB World Three-cushion ChampionshipUMB World Three-cushion ChampionshipThe UMB World Three-cushion Championship is a professional carom billiards tournament in the discipline of three-cushion billiards, organized mostly annually by the Union Mondiale de Billard...
of national teams. - The annual international Viersen Jazz FestivalViersen Jazz FestivalThe Viersen Jazz Festival is a music festival held every autumn in Viersen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was established in 1969 as 1. Internationales Niederrheinisches Jazz Festival.- History :...
draws musicians like for instance Jan AkkermanJan AkkermanJan Akkerman is a Dutch guitarist. Akkerman is a distinctive guitarist, constantly experimenting with new equipment and guitars. Akkerman's distinctive guitar sound is characterised by his pioneering use of volume swells which produce a smooth, fluty, sustained tone, and other complex techniques...
, Chick CoreaChick CoreaArmando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
, Charlie MarianoCharlie MarianoCarmine Ugo Mariano was an American jazz alto saxophonist. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Cologne, Germany.-Biography:Mariano was the son of Italian immigrants....
, Joe ZawinulJoe ZawinulJosef Erich Zawinul was an Austrian-American jazz keyboardist and composer.First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with trumpeter Miles Davis, and to become one of the creators of jazz fusion, an innovative musical genre that combined jazz with...
, Billy CobhamBilly CobhamWilliam C. Cobham is a Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader, who has called Switzerland home since the late 1970s....
, Ron CarterRon CarterRon Carter is an American jazz double-bassist. His appearances on over 2,500 albums make him one of the most-recorded bassists in jazz history, along with Milt Hinton, Ray Brown and Leroy Vinnegar. Carter is also an acclaimed cellist who has recorded numerous times on that...
, Chris PotterChris Potter (jazz saxophonist)Chris Potter is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.-Biography:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Potter spent most of his childhood in Columbia, South Carolina where his mother taught psychology at the University of South Carolina...
, Ahmad JamalAhmad JamalAhmad Jamal is an innovative and influential American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. According to Stanley Crouch, Jamal is second in importance in the development of jazz after 1945 only to Charlie Parker...
, Gonzalo RubalcabaGonzalo RubalcabaGonzalo Rubalcaba is a Grammy Award-winning Cuban jazz pianist and composer.Gonzalo Julio Gonzalez Fonseca was born in Havana, Cuba, May 27, 1963, into a musical family rich in the traditions of the country’s artistic past...
, Till BrönnerTill BrönnerTill Brönner is a German jazz musician, trumpet player, singer, composer, arranger and producer. He has a unique jazz approach influenced by bebop and fusion jazz, but also modern pop music, movie soundtracks , country music and even German pop songs...
, and others more. - The Festival Hall can be booked for private and professional use.
Secondary literature
- Fritz Winckel: Die besten Konzertsäle der Welt. In: „Baukunst und Werkform Nürnberg“. VIII. 1955. No. 12. pp. 750–753.
- Albert Pauly: Die Viersener Festhalle. In: „Viersen. Beiträge zu einer Stadt“. Vol. 6. pp. 4–13. Viersen 1984.
- Gustav René Hocke: Europa am Niederrhein. In: „Heimatbuch des Kreises Viersen“. pp. 21–35. Viersen 1988.
- Werner Mellen, Arie Nabrings u.a.: Die Festhalle 1913–1988. Viersen. Beiträge zu einer Stadt. Vol. 14. Viersen 1988.
- Jöris/Pitzen: Musik und Theater in Viersen von 1848 bis 1945. Viersen. Beiträge zu einer Stadt. Vol. 30. Viersen 2006.