TRAVEL + INDULGENCE 5THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN, DECEMBER 2-3, 2017theaustralian.com.au/travel

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Way before our flight from Dubai lands atHamburg’s little international airport, thecity’s new blockbuster concert hall, Elbphil-harmonie, makes itself heard with a quaver ofexcitement. “You’ll be lucky to get a hotelroom. All of Europe is flocking to performan-ces, or just to take a look,” says my mother’soctogenarian friend on the phone from herhome in Hamburg’s burbs.

In 2014, from the Lilliputian aspect of aharbour tour, I had gasped at the Elbphilhar-monie’s build in progress and became an in-stant acolyte of its Swiss architects, Herzog &de Meuron. Hundreds of giraffe-like cranesaround the port foreshore seemed to agreewith me, extending their necks to observe theplacement of 1100 uniquely bowed and shim-mering glass panels that form the Elbphilhar-monie’s upper facade. The base of the soaringconstruct is the massive Kaispeicher A, a1960s warehouse built where warehouseshave stood since the 1800s, at the confluenceof two churning channels of the Elbe River.

From the river, Elbphilharmonie appearsas an immense futuristic galleon bearingdownstream to the sea. It pitches into viewfrom everywhere in this low-rise city, unitingnarratives of culture and commerce.

Hamburgers stream to Elphi, as it’s affec-tionately known. “I’ll meet you at the Plazaon Wednesday,” says my cousin, referring tothe platform where trilling glass superstruc-ture and classic red-brick bass notes just con-nect. That airy, undulating perceived gap,with its sweeping organic internal spaces,flows onto an outer promenade where localsand tourists gather to listen to the music ofthe river traffic, to walk and talk, and to gazeout over Hamburg’s copper roofs, its vast in-

do, don’t catch the lift instead,” says my aunt.Transitional meditation complete, I step intoan eye-popping sheer view from the prow ofthe building, facing downriver and into thesunset. To me that’s a symphony of trade, his-tory and memories, right there. But with aseat to go to, I continue my ascent via cascad-ing blond-timber stairways to reach the mainconcert hall, a steep-sided bowl carved intothe building’s core, where no audience mem-ber sits more than 30m from the conductor.

Here too, the design evokes tidal forces,the terraces of the hall curving out, in andaround the stage in continuous reefs of coral-like gypsum. Those 10,000 variously pittedpanels — along with the giant inverted mush-room stalactite that hangs centrally from theceiling — absorb and scatter and strategicallyshape sound waves, for aural clarity through-out the space.

Plink, plink, and splish-splash. Our concertcommences. The young, elegantly dressedmusicians, drawn from 10 countries lapped bythe Baltic Sea, sway into the flow of musicalarrangements and obvious joy in each other’stalents. Charismatic conductor Kristjan Jarvidirects and guest soloist Mikhail Simonyanstands, leaning into his mastery of the violin.

Attentively rapt throughout, and havingebbed and flowed through an upbeat interval,the audience is all eager participation when atJarvi’s bidding the finale brings the entire or-chestra and onlookers to their feet.

In the wake of that singular performance, Ifloat on elation down near-deserted Hafen-City streets. Some of my urbane fellow con-certgoers may never have left the building,instead luxuriously tucking themselves intoaccommodation at The Westin Hamburg. ■ elbphilharmonie.de/en■ westinhamburg.com

Pitch perfect in HamburgNATALIE FILATOFF

The Grand Hall of Hamburg’s spectacular new Elbphilharmonie, inset

dustrial docklands and work-in-progress HafenCity district.

Since the building opened togreat fanfare and relief in Janu-ary (seven years behind scheduleand more than $1.1 billion overbudget), Elphi’s concert halls (theGrand Hall, the Recital Hall andthe Kaistudio) have been bookedout. I’d begun trying to buy tickets, anytickets, months before our arrival. I missedout on Orchestra Karaoke (imagine singingwith a full philharmonic backing band), RufusWainwright, the Yemen Blues, the ShanghaiSymphony Orchestra and even Chasing 007,An Evening with James Bond. I was cat gutted... cue the violins.

But by plucking on a couple of strings, I

scored one precious seat at the BalticSea Philharmonic’s Waterworks.The program would open with themusical splashing (in a trough ofwater played as a percussion in-strument) of composer CharlesColeman; artfully combine the

works of George Frideric Handeland Gene Pritsker; and reach glorious

saturation with 80th-birthday tributeperformances of Philip Glass’s The AmericanFour Seasons and Aguas da Amazonia.

Whether you’re promenading or in pos-session of a concert ticket, you rise to yourElphi occasion via the glimmering white tun-nel of the Tube, a long, slow escalator thattravels the length and height of the northbrick facade in two minutes. “Whatever you

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