Happy in Hamburg
Hamburg in Northern Germany might not seem a first choice for a short city break, but I spent a long weekend there which confounded all my expectations. Famous for its international shipping port which alone provides 160,000 jobs, it’s a city of contrasts – high art exists alongside pop culture and the infamous red-light district, the Reeperbahn.
The port is central to the identity of the city – not pushed to one side as in some cities – infact, Hamburgers are so proud of it they celebrate its birthday each year. So it’s completely natural that their annual jazz extravaganza, the Elbjazz Festival, takes place in and around the docks. Started four years ago and named after the Elbe, Hamburg’s river, it’s a bit like an Edinburgh Festival for jazz with different venues playing host to more than 80 bands on 12 stages. I’d just missed Jamie Cullum the day before.
I took a ferry to an island of docks and giant shipyards where bands were playing and I felt like an ant scuttling past enormous warehouses with huge iron girders, ghosts from another age. The first venue was packed with seats and was virtually full even though it was unheated and for late May, very chilly. The audience, mainly in their 30s, 40s and 50s was very appreciative of the bands. The next stage was outdoors, set against a backdrop of two giant gantries, container ships and water, water everywhere. Afterwards, we walked back to the mainland through the underground Elbe tunnel, built in 1911.
While the Elbjazz Festival is an innovative way of re-energizing the docks, Hamburg’s classical music tradition is as vigorous as ever. After a night of jazz, the following morning I was in a Baroque style concert hall, the Laeiszhalle, listening to a Handel concert performed by The Hamburg Philharmonic. With its 185 year old history, The Philharmonic is the most established musical institution in Hamburg and its 125 musicians play for nearly all opera and ballet performances as well.
The Laeiszhalle, all white and gold with a high glass ceiling, is testament to enlightened thinking. On Sunday mornings, parents can deposit their children at the concert crèche where Laeiszhalle staff introduce them to classical music, leaving parents free to enjoy the concert. It’s a brilliant idea and demonstrates just how committed Hamburgers are to introducing their children to music when young.
The restrained elegance of the Laeiszhalle is a contrast to the rough & readiness of the docks, but these venues exist cheek by jowl and are what give Hamburg its cosmopolitan atmosphere.
Home to 1.8 million people, Hamburg is booming. The trade which comes into the city via its port provides the wealth which feeds the culture. Musicals are also big business – on the Reeperbahn there’s Rocky, and they’ve built a theatre especially to house The Lion King.
Back at the excellent Hotel Marriott I relaxed before the next round of cultural fortification. 2013 is the bicentenary of German composer Richard Wagner’s birth and The Hamburg State Opera was performing a three week ‘Wagner-Wahn Festival’. ‘Wahn’ means madness or mania in German, so I was really looking forward to seeing the first opera of The Ring Cycle, Das Rheingold, to see what the madness was all about.
Laeizhalle concert hall
As the opening chords rang out, presaging the birth of a new world, we sat for the next 2½ hours (no interval) as the gods plotted their way to their splendid castle, Valhalla. The production was modern – 1950s style dress and lounge suits – with a rotating central mountain. The plot (too involved to explain here, but think big: gold, power, love, betrayal and death) seemed secondary to the music but the effect was overwhelming.
Richard Wagner was a revolutionary of his time, discarding conventional ideas of what music and opera should sound like. Today, a building revolution is taking place in the harbour area known as HafenCity. As its population exploded, Hamburgers needed to find more land for accommodation and without any hinterland to expand into they started building a new city ten years ago on old dockland.
HafenCity’s pièce de résistance is the new concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie – a project of such epic proportions that its cost will have escalated to over 700 million Euros by the time it’s completed in 2016.
It may still be a construction site, but tours of the Elbphilharmonie are so popular they’re booked up months in advance. The concert hall for 2,150 people is being built on top of a 1960s warehouse perched on the water’s edge. It includes two smaller concert halls, a 14 storey hotel and residential flats with panoramic views. The building resembles a huge block of crystal floating on red brick and its wavy glass roof mirrors Hamburg’s watery setting.
Exploring this site was like witnessing the construction of the Pyramids – its scale and complexity was mind-boggling. We were on the ground floor entrance to the car park when suddenly, Stravinsky’s savage Rite of Spring rang out from behind concrete pillars as part of an exhibition by London’s own Philharmonic Orchestra, designed to bring music to the people. Like everything else in Hamburg, the juxtaposition of industry and art was unexpected and powerful.
HafenCity is an affirmation of Hamburg’s confident belief in its own future. It may not be ready for another 15 years, but in the meantime, there’s plenty to return to Hamburg for.
The next Elbjazz Festival is 30 & 31 May 2014 www.elbjazz.de
For performances by The Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, www.philharmoniker-hamburg.de and Opera: www.staatsoper-hamburg.de
Details of the new concert hall Elbphilharmonie: www.elbphilharmonie.de and HafenCity: www.hafencity.com
The port is central to the identity of the city – not pushed to one side as in some cities – infact, Hamburgers are so proud of it they celebrate its birthday each year. So it’s completely natural that their annual jazz extravaganza, the Elbjazz Festival, takes place in and around the docks. Started four years ago and named after the Elbe, Hamburg’s river, it’s a bit like an Edinburgh Festival for jazz with different venues playing host to more than 80 bands on 12 stages. I’d just missed Jamie Cullum the day before.
I took a ferry to an island of docks and giant shipyards where bands were playing and I felt like an ant scuttling past enormous warehouses with huge iron girders, ghosts from another age. The first venue was packed with seats and was virtually full even though it was unheated and for late May, very chilly. The audience, mainly in their 30s, 40s and 50s was very appreciative of the bands. The next stage was outdoors, set against a backdrop of two giant gantries, container ships and water, water everywhere. Afterwards, we walked back to the mainland through the underground Elbe tunnel, built in 1911.
While the Elbjazz Festival is an innovative way of re-energizing the docks, Hamburg’s classical music tradition is as vigorous as ever. After a night of jazz, the following morning I was in a Baroque style concert hall, the Laeiszhalle, listening to a Handel concert performed by The Hamburg Philharmonic. With its 185 year old history, The Philharmonic is the most established musical institution in Hamburg and its 125 musicians play for nearly all opera and ballet performances as well.
The Laeiszhalle, all white and gold with a high glass ceiling, is testament to enlightened thinking. On Sunday mornings, parents can deposit their children at the concert crèche where Laeiszhalle staff introduce them to classical music, leaving parents free to enjoy the concert. It’s a brilliant idea and demonstrates just how committed Hamburgers are to introducing their children to music when young.
The restrained elegance of the Laeiszhalle is a contrast to the rough & readiness of the docks, but these venues exist cheek by jowl and are what give Hamburg its cosmopolitan atmosphere.
Home to 1.8 million people, Hamburg is booming. The trade which comes into the city via its port provides the wealth which feeds the culture. Musicals are also big business – on the Reeperbahn there’s Rocky, and they’ve built a theatre especially to house The Lion King.
Back at the excellent Hotel Marriott I relaxed before the next round of cultural fortification. 2013 is the bicentenary of German composer Richard Wagner’s birth and The Hamburg State Opera was performing a three week ‘Wagner-Wahn Festival’. ‘Wahn’ means madness or mania in German, so I was really looking forward to seeing the first opera of The Ring Cycle, Das Rheingold, to see what the madness was all about.
Laeizhalle concert hallAs the opening chords rang out, presaging the birth of a new world, we sat for the next 2½ hours (no interval) as the gods plotted their way to their splendid castle, Valhalla. The production was modern – 1950s style dress and lounge suits – with a rotating central mountain. The plot (too involved to explain here, but think big: gold, power, love, betrayal and death) seemed secondary to the music but the effect was overwhelming.
Richard Wagner was a revolutionary of his time, discarding conventional ideas of what music and opera should sound like. Today, a building revolution is taking place in the harbour area known as HafenCity. As its population exploded, Hamburgers needed to find more land for accommodation and without any hinterland to expand into they started building a new city ten years ago on old dockland.
HafenCity’s pièce de résistance is the new concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie – a project of such epic proportions that its cost will have escalated to over 700 million Euros by the time it’s completed in 2016.
It may still be a construction site, but tours of the Elbphilharmonie are so popular they’re booked up months in advance. The concert hall for 2,150 people is being built on top of a 1960s warehouse perched on the water’s edge. It includes two smaller concert halls, a 14 storey hotel and residential flats with panoramic views. The building resembles a huge block of crystal floating on red brick and its wavy glass roof mirrors Hamburg’s watery setting.
Exploring this site was like witnessing the construction of the Pyramids – its scale and complexity was mind-boggling. We were on the ground floor entrance to the car park when suddenly, Stravinsky’s savage Rite of Spring rang out from behind concrete pillars as part of an exhibition by London’s own Philharmonic Orchestra, designed to bring music to the people. Like everything else in Hamburg, the juxtaposition of industry and art was unexpected and powerful.
HafenCity is an affirmation of Hamburg’s confident belief in its own future. It may not be ready for another 15 years, but in the meantime, there’s plenty to return to Hamburg for.
Want to visit? Here are your trip essentials...
Marriott Hotel Hamburg, ABC Strasse 52, Hamburg Tel: +49 (0)40 35 05-0 www.marriott.comThe next Elbjazz Festival is 30 & 31 May 2014 www.elbjazz.de
For performances by The Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, www.philharmoniker-hamburg.de and Opera: www.staatsoper-hamburg.de
Details of the new concert hall Elbphilharmonie: www.elbphilharmonie.de and HafenCity: www.hafencity.com