In October 2003 the long anticipated Disney Concert Hall opened – and was hailed a modernist masterpiece. here we recount its history… <\/p>
W<\/span>hen Walt Disney died in 1966, he was widely lauded for his groundbreaking animated movies and for his defining contribution to 20th-century American culture.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n But he had done his bit for classical music too \u2013 in the classic 1940 film Fantasia<\/i><\/a><\/strong>, a brilliantly imaginative gallery of characters, images and animals disported to music by Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky and others. It literally brought classical music to a whole new audience.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Several decades later, in 1987, Disney\u2019s widow Lillian made an announcement which would expand Walt\u2019s legacy to classical music further. Her plan was to \u2018build a world-class performance venue as a gift to the people of Los Angeles and a tribute to Walt Disney\u2019s devotion to the arts\u2019, and Lillian was donating $50m to make it happen. The Disney family\u2019s lawyer requested \u2018traditional touches and brass handrails\u2019 in the building, suggesting that something fairly conservative was expected.<\/span><\/p>\n Conservative is far from what the family got. When the Walt Disney Concert Hall opened 16 years and $274m later, it was hailed a modernist masterpiece and described as \u2018a gleaming clipper ship\u2019, \u2018gloriously cartoon-like\u2019 and \u2018a musical ark with silver sails that dance in the bright blue California sky\u2019. Cloaked in a seductive steel-panelled skin, the building was, one writer drooled, \u2018so stunning that it has been inspiring sexual metaphors\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n The designer of this gleaming edifice was Frank Gehry, a Los Angeles resident with a growing reputation as one of the US\u2019s most innovative architects. Gehry was, though, a risky choice. \u2018Nobody had ever trusted him with a large public building or a large budget before,\u2019 one commentator noted.<\/span><\/p>\n Gehry\u2019s finished structure was, however, a virtually unqualified triumph. A symphony of elegant curvature in LA\u2019s generally featureless downtown area, it cossetted concert-goers with its soothing Douglas fir and oak interiors. The 2,265-seat auditorium, nestled within the hall\u2019s steely outer carapace, aimed to create a warmly inclusive, intimate impression. \u2018No chandeliers, no red velvet seats, no special boxes for wealthy concertgoers,\u2019 one observer wrote. \u2018And no proscenium stage that acts as an invisible curtain between audience and performers.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n Crucially, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Walt Disney Concert Hall\u2019s main occupants, loved what Gehry and his acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota had created. Players raved about how clearly they could hear one another, compared to the sonic compromises of their former home, The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. \u2018I am totally happy,\u2019 music director Esa-Pekka Salonen reported, \u2018and so is the orchestra.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n At the opening concert on 24 October 2003, the LA Times<\/i> reported on \u2018a black-tie crowd of the powerful and socially prominent\u2019, with \u2018a parade of stretch limos and the sort of celebrity buzz that Los Angeles usually reserves for Oscar night\u2019. A small group of demonstrators protested the huge socio-economic disparities they felt the hall highlighted. \u2018Do something about people sleeping in cardboard boxes a few blocks from here,\u2019 one protester pointedly commented.<\/span><\/p>\n In the auditorium itself, however, there was mounting anticipation as jazz singer Dianne Reeves opened proceedings with an unaccompanied rendition of \u2018The Star-Spangled Banner\u2019. Music by Bach, Ives, Gabrieli, Ligeti and Mozart followed, before the evening concluded with Stravinsky\u2019s The Rite of Spring<\/i> \u2013 an appreciative nod, no doubt, to the work\u2019s inclusion in Disney\u2019s Fantasia<\/i> over six decades earlier. <\/span><\/p>\n It was, the New York Times<\/i> recorded, a thrilling performance where \u2018the sound engulfed you as it should but kept the intricacies audible\u2019. Sadly, Lillian Disney was not on hand to hear it. She died aged 98, in 1997, six years before Gehry\u2019s masterly monument to her late husband was completed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> \u00a0<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n In October 2003 the long anticipated Disney Concert Hall opened – and was hailed a modernist masterpiece. here we recount its history… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":32897,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/09\/walt-disney-concert-hall-a-modern-marvel-of-music-and-architecture.jpg",1890,1252,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/09\/walt-disney-concert-hall-a-modern-marvel-of-music-and-architecture-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/09\/walt-disney-concert-hall-a-modern-marvel-of-music-and-architecture-300x199.jpg",300,199,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/09\/walt-disney-concert-hall-a-modern-marvel-of-music-and-architecture-768x509.jpg",768,509,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/09\/walt-disney-concert-hall-a-modern-marvel-of-music-and-architecture-1024x678.jpg",800,530,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/09\/walt-disney-concert-hall-a-modern-marvel-of-music-and-architecture-1536x1017.jpg",1536,1017,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2023\/09\/walt-disney-concert-hall-a-modern-marvel-of-music-and-architecture.jpg",1890,1252,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"In October 2003 the long anticipated Disney Concert Hall opened - and was hailed a modernist masterpiece. here we recount its history...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/32896"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Where is the Walt Disney Concert Hall?<\/h2>\n
Who designed Walt Disney Concert Hall?<\/h2>\n
When did the Walt Disney Concert Hall open?<\/h2>\n
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