São Paulo New Concert Hall

by Monica Teixeira / MusicalAmerica.com (October 28, 1999)

SAO PAULO, Brazil -- "To the new hall in Sao Paulo, congratulations are in order: lovely sound!" The signature below the comment in the golden book is conductor Lorin Maazel's. The date is October 7, 1999 - after the two concerts by the Vienna Philharmonic, the first among the world's top orchestras to perform in the new, 1509-seat Sala Sao Paulo (Sao Paulo Concert Hall), which opened in July.

Designed by Russell Johnson and his New York-based Artec Consultants Inc (whose recent projects include the new seat of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra), the hall combines Louis XVI style interior design (it is a converted 1920's train station) with state-of-the-art acoustic technology via its' adjustable ceiling. There are 15 individually-controlled rectangular metal panels whose positions can be changed instantaneously. Suspended 24 meters (almost 80 feet) above the ground, they can be adjusted to achieve the ideal volume of air. Their pre-performance adjustment is a show of its own, though not one to compete with the 32 majestic Corinthian columns that have remained undisturbed in the renovation.

Sao Paulo is Brazil's largest city and state, with a population of 18 million in the metropolitan area. Though it is every bit as rich culturally as Rio de Janeiro, which lies 200 miles to the east, it has never had the international, exotic reputation of the former city. So why a concert hall? Part of the answer is that Brazil is a land of contrasts. The other part is John Neschling, the artistic director of the Gorquestra Sinfonica do Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra), OSESP.

Neschling is a mature, impetuous Brazilian conductor, the son of Austrian parents, grandnephew of Arnold Shoenberg and Arthur Bodanzky, who has lived and worked in Europe for the last 15 years. When he decided to leave Rio de Janeiro, where he was born, the Brazilian press registered his chagrin with the difficulties a classical music professional confronts in Brazil: no continuity to the projects, the priority of political convenience over technical quality, the ultimate eventuality of insufficient funds.

Two and a half years ago, Marcos Mendonca, the State of São Paulo secretary of culture, invited Neschling to lead the local symphony. The orchestra, founded in 1953, had a history of ups and downs that mirrored the vicissitudes that had made the conductor abandon Brazil in the first place.

So Neschling presented the secretary with a list of demands that, he now admits, he didn't expect to be met: restructuring the orchestra, paying decent salaries to the musicians, creating a school of music, editing and performing forgotten works of 18th- and 19th-century Brazilian composers. His biggest demand was creating a permanent home for the OSESP, a privilege not usually afforded Brazilian ensembles, where it could build its own, identifiable signature sound.

The State governor, Mario Covas, and secretary Mendonça agreed to all of Neschling's conditions, committing $35 million to the creation of the São Paulo Concert Hall.

The choice of a railroad station, located on the outskirts of town, came about not for the Louis XVI interiors or the Corinthian columns, but for the characteristics of the waiting room. "The finest halls are narrow, high and long, with parellel side walls", sayd Johnson. So was the monumental waiting room; it reproduced almost to the inch the dimensions of the best 19th-century concert halls.

Since some areas of the station were still un use, the challenge was to insulate the performance space from the vibrations and noise of the trains, separated from the waiting room/concert hall only by huge glass windows. The solution was to dig out the ground underneath the hall and float the floor on two concrete slabs separated by a layer of neoprene.

The new concert hall is a landmark for classical music in Brazil. And Neschling is in the process of doing for OSESP what Rattle did for CBSO- that is, turning it into a world-class ensemble. OSESP is already Brazil's best orchestra; for 2003, Klubhaus Konzerte has invited it for a minimum of five concerts in European cities; before then, however, the conductor would like to tour Latin America (a concert at Buenos Aire's Colon is already scheduled for September) and the U.S. To the New York Times, Neschling said: "Sao Paulo is not less important than Chicago. So why not have an orchestra like Chicago?" Neschling may be a dreamer, but he's clearly capable of making his dreams come true.