It was a dream of all music lovers and concert-goers: Munich’s new concert hall at Ostbahnhof should be able to compete with the best halls in the world. The city discussed it for two decades (SZ Plus), for two decades the musicians of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra dreamed of brilliant performances in a house specially designed and built for them.
There are four major orchestras in the city: the Munich Philharmonic, the BR Symphoniker, the orchestra of the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz and the orchestra of the Staatsoper. It’s a vibrant, high-quality music scene.
The concert hall at the Ostbahnhof is – or should one say “was”? – one of the prestige projects of the Free State for the city. Many millions of euros have already been spent on the planning. In the meantime, however, the highly acclaimed Isar Philharmonic Hall has gone into operation: when the Gasteig is renovated, Europe’s largest cultural center will also be available for concerts again. And so the question becomes louder, including among those involved in culture: Does Munich still need the expensive lighthouse project Konzerthaus?
Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) also asks this question. My colleague Alexander Gorkow and I visited him in the State Chancellery to talk to him about art in general and the concert hall in particular (SZ Plus). Söder is clearly stepping on the brakes here: “We should stop and give ourselves a break.” A lot has changed in the past two years. The state is massively challenged by the Corona and Ukraine crises: “We can’t finance everything indefinitely.”
Where do we invest in art and how? How many new big concert temples can we afford? How much does the renovation of existing buildings cost? What does this mean for the cultural budgets of the future? And is the balance between investments in bricks and heads still right? Söder now wants to discuss all of this again – with the city, with artists, with experts.
Incidentally, the prime minister, who was once finance minister, also dropped that the concert hall “could probably cost over a billion euros.” That is new. But read for yourself.
THE DAY IN MUNICH
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Farewell to the Menterschwaige Christian Schottenhamel stops as landlord of the well-known estate and beer garden. An investor wants to renovate and rebuild the restaurant in the next few years.
MVV wants to introduce the nine-euro ticket quickly What does the federal relief package mean for subscribers? They should also benefit from the offer, says MVV boss Rosenbusch.
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