Next to the People's Square, in the Yanzhong Greenland, a Western classical style building attracts the attention of visitors from all over the world, and she has walked through the Shanghai Concert Hall for nearly a century.
As one of Shanghai's cultural landmarks, this "urban music living room" built in 1930 has been rejuvenated and gorgeously restored after overhauls, translations and many repairs, continuing to tell her legendary experience and the cultural story of Shanghai's Shanghai-style city, showing the charm of this historic building that deserves to be read again and again.
A half-armor, frozen in the memory of how much light and shadow and musical notes
In the 1920s, Shanghai could not find a cinema with international standards. In this context, the Shanghai Concert Hall (then known as the Nanjing Grand Theatre) came into being. In 1929, the Lianyi Company, under the name of the socialite He Tingran at that time, leased land from the Chaozhou Tongxiang Association and invested in the construction of a building called "Nanjing Grand Theater" at No. 523 Aidoa Road (now Yan'an East Road) in Baxian Bridge, which opened on March 26, 1930. The location of this commercial street with many shops in that year was obviously due to the need to attract the target passenger flow. On the opening day, the premiere was "All Song and Dance Dialogue with Sound", "Broadway" produced by Universal Corporation of America, thus becoming the first theater in Shanghai to broadcast foreign films.
From the "Nanjing Grand Theatre" at that time to the renaming of "Beijing Cinema" in 1950 to the name "Shanghai Concert Hall" in 1959, the change of name also narrates the evolution of its function. The stage of the concert hall is designed to be "close to the people" at the beginning, which is small and shallow, which is convenient for arranging other drama performances in addition to screening movies. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang came back to perform "Noble Concubine Drunk", and his first scene with the "Yu Faction" Taidou Yu Zhenfei in this cooperation, "Double Odd Society", caused a lot of sensations. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was mainly based on the broadcast of movies, acrobatics, circus, and Chinese opera, and was the most luxurious cinema at that time, and it had won the right to direct new films from Fox and MGM in the United States.
Because the design of the Nanjing Grand Theater was more considered to be accompanied by the band during the silent film screening at that time, she was given priority in the alternative to the transformation of professional concert halls in Shanghai after the founding of new China. In 1959, the brilliant stars of the Chinese classical music scene gathered together: soprano Zhou Xiaoyan composed "Nightingale", violinist Yu Lina played "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", conductor Situ Han conducted the chorus "Happy River"... The performance, which represented the highest level of music in China at the time, witnessed her rebirth under the new name of "Shanghai Concert Hall".
For more than half a century, the memories of queuing up all night around the concert hall to buy tickets, the desire and pursuit of classical music, made her a cultural landmark that countless Shanghai audiences will never forget. The symphonic overture "Ode to the Red Flag" and the chorus "China, My Lovely Mother" flow from the gorgeous music hall to the simple hearts of the people, becoming an eternal red classic; the violin concerto "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" plays the first poignant note here, leading Chinese music to the world; Min Huifen, Zheng Shisheng and other Chinese musicians also stand out from here and become idols in the hearts of generations of Chinese musicians and audiences.
Opening the time album of the Shanghai Concert Hall, the memories of old music fans will surely stay for a long time at the concert of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at the end of 2005 – this is the first time that master conductor Janssons led a delegation to Shanghai, and shortly before coming to Shanghai, he was confirmed as the conductor of the 2006 Vienna Golden Hall New Year Concert. On those two Shanghai winter nights 16 years ago, classic melodies such as Beethoven's "Seventh Symphony" sounded, and the rigorous and mellow tradition of the German-Austrian Orchestra fascinated the audience, and there were many domestic masters such as conductor Bian Zushan in the audience.
In the late autumn of 2007, in order to welcome the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Christian Tylermann, the sound masks on both sides of the stage of the concert hall were opened to accommodate the orchestra's huge staff of more than 100 people. The Munich Philharmoniker staged a number of German-Austrian works such as Chad Strauss's "Don Juan", and the magnificent harmony of Wagner's "Famous Singers of Nuremberg" added to the magnificent harmony, making this night a sleepless night in the hearts of fans.
The pianist Andras Schiff himself may not have imagined that his first concert in Shanghai set a record for the Shanghai Concert Hall recital. It was the early summer of 2013, and Xu was ignited by the enthusiasm of the Shanghai audience, and in the frenzied cheers and cheers of the audience, he returned to the scene nine times to perform eight songs for 58 minutes. The repertoire includes Bach's Italian Concerto, Schumann's Fantasia in C major, the third movement, Mendelsohn's Majestic Variations, The Weaver's Song... When Schiff returned for the ninth time to play the aria of Bach's Goldberg Variations, some of the audience was in tears. Many fans say it is the most legendary solo concert in Shanghai in years.
Julia Quartet, Hagen Quartet, Berlin Philharmonic 12 Cellos, St. Martin Chamber Orchestra, well-known groups all arrived; pianist Fu Cong's first concerto concert in his hometown of Shanghai, cellist Wang Jian's full set of Bach solo cello concerts, Shanghai Concert Hall recorded the highlight moments of many artists...
Under "unintentional willow insertion", the sound effect of "it is difficult to find with a lantern" is created
Some people refer to the Shanghai Concert Hall as "solidified music" because of its noble appearance and artistic charm, and the decoration of the building is varied and layered, and the tones are light and elegant. The classical pillars and ticket doors are evenly proportioned, making people feel rhythmic and melodic. Stepping into it, it is like hearing the symphony's theme melody repeating, variation, unfolding, deriving, contrasting, reproducing...
The designer of the Shanghai Concert Hall is the first generation of Chinese designers who returned from overseas, Fan Wenzhao and Zhao Shen. Like Chen Zhi, Liang Sicheng, Lin Huiyin, etc., who later returned to China, they also graduated from the Department of Architecture of the Academy of Fine Arts of the University of Pennsylvania, known as the "Cradle of Architects", and were deeply influenced by the Western classical architectural style and eclectic thinking at that time, that is, the integration of Western-style architecture into the part of traditional Chinese architecture.
The Nanjing Grand Theater in 1930 can be called the "master of this style". Covers an area of 1381 square meters, construction area of 3800 square meters, reinforced concrete mixed structure, a total of four floors, the lower part of the outer wall of the stone wall, the upper part of the red glaze with brown bricks of the clear water surface. The façade of the building is a simplified neoclassical composition with beautiful proportions, and the Ionian beams and circular pilasters above the entrance canopy form a three-bay alcove and three round-arched windows. There is a relief under the cornice above the frieze, forming an elegant decorative style and elegant composition, with a strong contrast between virtual and real. In the foyer there is a large staircase imitating the Paris Opera that leads to the hall; the columns on the second floor are composed of ornate Roman composite columns, forming a column colonnade and a column colonnade, and the black marble column heads contrast strongly with the white marble columns. They are coordinated and layered with the ornate foyer of the six gates, the palatial dome, and the steps of the White Jade. Zuo Chenggao, chief designer of Zhangming Designers And Chief Designer of The Wenbao District of Shanghai Concert Hall, believes that many of the designs and details of the Shanghai Concert Hall are still commendable even now. For example, the 16 Romanesque colonnade columns in the entrance hall of the concert hall, the three-fold staircase and the second floor promenade with the European classical architectural style, the exquisite and beautiful decorative composition around the theater, and the delicate and complex and dynamic cloud patterns on the dome.
There is no doubt that the Shanghai Concert Hall is a successful example of Chinese architects designing Western classical architecture, and a symbol of the heyday of the development of modern Shanghai theater architecture, which heralds the chinese architects to step onto the stage of Shanghai theater architectural design from then on.
Interestingly, after the completion of the Shanghai Concert Hall, Fan Wenzhao was influenced by the new architectural trend and began to actively promote modernist architectural ideas. In 1934, Fan Wenzhao wrote an article expressing introspection on eclecticism, expressing "deep hatred" for the practice of "using the Western format as a roof and using the Chinese format as a roof", calling on "everyone to correct this error", completely breaking with his "total adherence to the ancient" and advocating "totally promoting the new" modern architecture; and even proposing that "a house should come from the inside to the outside, and must not go from the outside to the inside", which is a modernist design idea from the inside, in favor of "first scientific and then beautify". The Majestic Theatre, built in 1941, is a masterpiece of his new architectural ideas. Abandoning the palatial appearance and pursuing reasonable function, compact layout, and economical practicality, this architectural concept continues to this day.
However, the classical-style Shanghai Concert Hall is by no means an "embroidered pillow", and so many masters and troupes favor it, not because of its gorgeous appearance, but because the Shanghai Concert Hall has the world's top acoustics - each seat covers a reverberation of up to 1.5 seconds to 1.8 seconds, and conductor Chen Xieyang said that it is "difficult to find with a lantern"; "there seems to be an electric current in the air", which is the highest quality evaluation of the sound effects of the Shanghai Concert Hall by David Finkel, artistic director of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Association The famous composer Zhu Jian'er also praised: "The acoustic effects here are the best in Shanghai, and both the performers and the audience are willing to choose this place."
The "secret" of top sound is complicated, but it can certainly be the unexpected fruit of "unintentional willow insertion" that year. According to Zuo Chenggao, the reverberation effect of the building comes from many aspects, the main factors are the shape and size of the space, the "sound absorption rate" of the wall material, and so on. At the beginning of the construction of the Shanghai Concert Hall, it was mainly to meet the needs of screening movies (reverberation required 0.8 seconds), but the influence of the boot-shaped structure coupled with various factors such as area, stage height, and even wall and dome carving, resulted in her reverberation obviously "exceeding the standard", reaching more than 1.5 seconds, which may not be very beneficial to film screening, but it is a match made in heaven with beautiful music. In 1959, in order to test the reverberation time of the Shanghai Concert Hall, taking into account the absorption of sound waves by the human body, the relevant departments specially transferred 1,000 military coats from the troops, entered the concert hall in the dead of night, and covered the seats one by one, simulating the scene of thousands of spectators sitting in the whole field. In the end, the perfect result made the building officially become the City Concert Hall of Shanghai.
Over the past 90 years, the Shanghai Concert Hall has undergone many repairs, major repairs and even translations. In September 2002, in order to cooperate with the urban transformation plan, the Shanghai Concert Hall carried out a translational repair project.
At that time, the seventy-year-old concert hall, weighing as much as 5650 tons, was lifted by 3.38 meters in the translation, and from the current elevated Tibet intersection ramp to the southeast direction to the current position, a total of 66.46 meters, creating a miracle in the history of national architectural translation. It is a huge challenge to carry the many risks of translation by keeping the fragile walls of the wind candles dead, the dangerous structures without partitions under the wooden roofs. The construction workers, fearful of stirring up the shock of the historic building, not only carefully tied the inside and outside of the concert hall, but also used hand tools to chisel out a full 2800 cubic meters of concrete when docking the new column wall. The panned concert hall is nestled in a shadow of flowers and trees. The exterior retains the historic style of Western architecture, while the interior facilities are redesigned in the main color of "sea blue", which is more elegant and refined. Under the glow of the harp-shaped light stand and warm-colored lights, the bronze classical European seat made of pure wood and the light cyan cushion make the audience listen to the fairy music in the blue waves and the boundless moonlight, which is quite romantic. Couples use the concert hall as an ideal destination for wedding photos.
Since March 2019, after more than a decade of high-intensity use, the concert hall has been "overwhelmed" and began a one-and-a-half-year closed renovation. Since the renovation and reopening in September last year, the Shanghai Concert Hall has added more than 20,000 members. Under the influence of the epidemic, 296 concerts were still performed here in the first 10 months of this year. Every year, benchmarking international first-class art institutions, actively introducing celebrities, famous troupes and famous artists, and striving to become a "classic temple, a fashion window, and a music home", bringing the real enjoyment of art without borders to audiences in Shanghai, the whole country and the world.
Author: Guo Chaohao
Edited by: Shang Hui
Editor-in-Charge: Li Ting
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.