The Salle Pleyel (, meaning "Pleyel Hall") is a

concert hall A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage that serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats. This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, dramatic theatres or convention centres that ma ...

in the 8th arrondissement of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, designed by acoustician Gustave Lyon together with architect Jacques Marcel Auburtin, who died in 1926, and the work was completed in 1927 by his collaborators André Granet and Jean-Baptiste Mathon. Its varied programme includes contemporary and popular music. Until 2015, the hall was a major venue for classical orchestral music, with Orchestre de Paris and the

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France is a French radio orchestra, affiliated with Radio France. The orchestra performs principally at the auditorium of the Maison de la Radio in Paris, along with several concerts at the Philharmonie de Pa ...

as resident ensembles.

Early history

An earlier salle Pleyel seating 300 opened in December 1839 at 22 rue Rochechouart. From 1849 to 1869, impresario Charlotte Tardieu organized four chamber concerts a year at the hall. It saw the premieres of many important works, including Chopin's Ballade Op.38 and Scherzo Op.39 (April 26, 1841), Ballade Op.47 (February 21, 1842) and Barcarolle Op.60 (February 16, 1848), the

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ea ...

(1868) and fifth (1896) piano concertos by Saint-Saëns, Fauré's Violin Sonata No. 1 (27 January 1877), and Ravel's '' Pavane pour une infante défunte'' and '' Jeux d'eau'' (April 5, 1902) and Sonata for Violin and Cello (April 6, 1922). A replacement 3,000-seat hall was commissioned in 1927 by piano manufacturer Pleyel et Cie. The design work was divided in two: the main designer of the concert hall was Gustave Lyon, an acoustician, director of the Pleyel musical instrument factory and an inventor of several musical instruments. But he entrusted the architectural design to the architect Jacques Marcel Auburtin, who died in 1926, and the work was completed by two of his collaborators, André Granet and Jean-Baptiste Mathon. The building work began on December 5, 1924 on the land located at No. 252 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, near Place de l'Etoile, and was completed in 1927. The inauguration concert by the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, with Robert Casadesus as soloist and

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

, and Philippe Gaubert as conductors, included music by

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

, Manuel de Falla,

, Paul Dukas,

Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most infl ...

, and Ravel. A fire ravaged the interior of the hall on 28 June 1928 and the renovation cost made it impossible to repay the loan to Crédit Lyonnais bank, which eventually took over the property and reduced the seats to 2,400. They in turn sold the hall to Hubert Martigny in 1998. On 19 August 1945, the Commanding General, U.S. Army Theater Service Forces, European Theater of Operations Lt. Gen.

John C. H. Lee John Clifford Hodges Lee (1 August 1887 – 30 August 1958) was a career US Army engineer, who rose to the rank of lieutenant general and commanded the Communications Zone (ComZ) in the European Theater of Operations during World War II. A gra ...

gave his V-J Day speech and bade farewell to some 300 officers of the Paris Garrison, many of whom were soon heading home to civilian lives. Stravinsky returned to Paris to conduct the French premiere of ''

Agon Agon ( Greek ) is a Greek term for a conflict, struggle or contest. This could be a contest in athletics, in chariot or horse racing, or in music or literature at a public festival in ancient Greece. Agon is the word-forming element in 'agony', ...

'' in 1957, and of '' Threni'' in 1958, both at Salle Pleyel.

Recent history

From 2002 to 2006, the hall underwent major renovation. The acoustics of the hall and the public and service areas were improved, and seating decreased from the post-fire 2,400 seats to 1,913. The Salle Pleyel has been owned by the Cité de la Musique since 2009. Its status as a classical music venue effectively ended in January 2015, when its programming was transferred to the newly-opened Philharmonie de Paris concert hall. An orchestral concert featuring live performances of music from various

Bandai Namco Entertainment is a Japanese multinational video game publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and ...

-produced video games, such as '' Dark Souls'' and ''

Tekken is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting video and arcade games developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Namco). The franchise also includes film and print adaptations. The main games in the series ...

'', took place on February 4, 2017. The event was attended by

Motoi Sakuraba is a Japanese composer and keyboardist. He is known for his numerous contributions in video games, such as for '' Tales'', ''Star Ocean'', ''Mario Golf'', '' Mario Tennis'', ''Golden Sun'', and ''Dark Souls'' series, as well as several other ani ...

and Go Shiina, composers of the aforementioned games.

Design influence

In terms of influence, at the time of its completion, the concert hall was lauded for its acoustics by the leading modernist architect

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

. The interior form (tapered plan and curved ceiling) had an influence on the design of churches designed by the Finnish architect

Alvar Aalto Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (; 3 February 1898 – 11 May 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, s ...

, firstly in his proposal for a church in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

(1929, unbuilt) but also for a church he designed in

Wolfsburg Wolfsburg (; Eastphalian: ''Wulfsborg'') is the fifth largest city in the German state of Lower Saxony, located on the river Aller. It lies about east of Hanover and west of Berlin. Wolfsburg is famous as the location of Volkswagen AG's he ...

, Germany (built 1960).Schildt, Göran, ''Alvar Aalto: A Life's Work - Architecture, Design and Art'', Otava, Helsinki, 1994, p.46.

References

External links

* {{Coord, 48, 52, 37.18, N, 2, 18, 3.73, E, type:landmark_region:FR, display=title Concert halls in France Buildings and structures in the 8th arrondissement of Paris Event venues established in 1839 1839 establishments in France Buildings and structures completed in 1927 Music venues in Paris