The Arsenal Concert Hall is a cultural venue dedicated specially to classical and

art music Art music (alternatively called classical music, cultivated music, serious music, and canonic music) is music considered to be of high culture, high phonoaesthetic value. It typically implies advanced structural and theoretical considerationsJa ...

and located near the Esplanade garden in

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

, capital of the Lorraine region,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. The Arsenal is home to the Orchestre National de Lorraine and almost 200 events are spread over the season period between September and June. The Arsenal has gained wide recognition as one of the most beautiful concert halls in the world.Classica magazine, Special Issue, September 2010 The Arsenal is part of a cultural complex along with the chapel of the Knight Templars, from the 13th century, and ancient basilica of Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains, a Roman basilica of the 4th century, refurbished as showroom and concert hall for the Gregorian chant, respectively.

Architecture and urbanization

In 1978, the municipality of Metz decided to build a concert hall, and the site chosen was the

citadel A citadel is the most fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of ''city'', meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. ...

, occupied by the ancient Arsenal Ney. Built beginning in 1859 under

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...

, the Arsenal Ney was a store for weapons and ammunition. It remained in use until the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The realization of the concert hall was the subject of an international competition, started in 1983. In 1985, the project was awarded to the architect Ricardo Bofill. Work began in May 1987 and the inauguration took place in February 1989 with a performance by Russian cellist

Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian Cello, cellist and conducting, conductor. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was well known for both inspiring and commissioning new works, which enl ...

, who stated that the venue was "an instrument of music on its own." The arsenal was originally arranged as a quadrangle. The design by

Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura (RBTA) is an architecture firm that was founded in 1963 by Ricardo Bofill, initially as Taller de Arquitectura (). It is headquartered in Sant Just Desvern near Barcelona, in a former cement factory known a ...

removed one of its wings, opening a vast terrace in the rear which created a meeting area, available also to two other ancient buildings, Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains and the chapel of the

Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...

. To preserve the regular lines of the Arsenal, most of the volume of the concert hall lies beneath the terrace created within the wings of the building. Windows open in a classic frame in Jaumont's stone surmounted by a Roman arch decorated with a stone key. Facades are faced with an Italian honey-colour stone, joints are in brass, and roofs are in lacquered bronze-like metal. The warm colors of the interior decoration with classic pilasters of beech and sycamore were chosen to evoke the use of marquetry in furniture and ancient musical instruments. For the tenth anniversary of the Arsenal's inauguration, the terrace was adorned with a sculpture, ''La Sentinaile'', the work of Antoine Poncet.

Size and acoustic

The facility consists of a concert hall that seats 1,500 (the ''Grande Salle''), a room with that seats 350 (the Esplanade hall), two reception rooms (Governor and Orangerie halls), an exhibition gallery, a shop selling art, and a restaurant. The dimensions are comparable to those of the Musikverein of Vienna and the volume of the room is about 13,600 cubic meters. Ceilings were established by boxes in staff finalized by the acousticians. Since its inauguration, the Arsenal has gained wide recognition for the quality of its

musical acoustics Musical acoustics or music acoustics is a multidisciplinary field that combines knowledge from physics, psychophysics, organology (classification of the instruments), physiology, music theory, ethnomusicology, signal processing and instrument buil ...

Performance and cultural policy

Numerous musicians of repute have performed in the venue, including Yevgeny Svetlanov,

Sergiu Celibidache Sergiu Celibidache (; ; 13 August 1996) was a Romanian people, Romanian Conducting, conductor, composer, musical theorist, and teacher. Educated in his native Romania, and later in Paris and Berlin, Celibidache's career in music spanned over fi ...

, Lorin Maazel, Evgeny Kissin, William Christie, Philippe Herreweghe, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Jordi Savall, Philippe Jaroussky, Lang Lang, or Grigory Sokolov.

Dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

s take equally part to the programing and emblematic figures of

contemporary dance Contemporary dance is a genre of Concert dance, dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly stron ...

have performed there, such as Angelin Preljocaj, Sasha Waltz, Merce Cunningham, or Trisha Brown. The music venue was used in several artistic productions, such as the soundtrack of the film, Farinelli, or the ''Live At the Arsenal in Metz'' album of Michel Petrucciani. The concert hall held in 2009 and 2020 the ''Victoires de la Musique Classique'', the annual French award ceremony that recognizes classical musicians.

References

External links

Arsenal website

Official Town Council's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arsenal De Metz 1864 establishments in France Buildings and structures in Metz Concert halls in France Tourist attractions in Metz Ricardo Bofill buildings

Architecture and urbanization

Size and acoustic

Performance and cultural policy

See also

References

External links