Björn Wilhelm, the cultural program director of Bavarian Radio, is betting that the concert hall will be built in Munich’s Werksviertel and that Bavaria’s government coalition will act accordingly to get it off the ground. “First of all, we have confidence that promises will be kept. We are very confident that the concert hall project will now be tackled with great enthusiasm. It is of course now an issue in the consultation on the coalition agreement,” said Wilhelm recently at the annual press conference of the BR. Simon Rattle, who took up his position as director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra a few weeks ago, is “currently number one among conductors in the world.”
The BR can be happy about this, but they also “wish for a permanent home for our orchestra.” And the people of Munich and Bavaria also deserve clarity. Because the “concert hall concept” is much more than a roof over your head. It is exactly the place where music communication, education and “the connection between city and country” can be established. That’s why the building is not only extremely important from an orchestra perspective, but also “socially important.”
Wilhelm announced that Simon Rattle would soon be working with folk musicians on a “participatory project” in the BR Symphony Orchestra. Prime Minister Markus Söder ordered a “pause for thought” against the background of the corona pandemic a year and a half ago for the concert hall construction, which also includes rooms for the music college, a recording studio, a small high-tech hall and the most modern transmission options. Meanwhile, the planning continued as decided by the state parliament.