
Salle Pleyel Concert Hall, Paris, (FR)
LOCATION:
Paris, (FR)
ARCHITECT:
Gustav Lyon (original) Philippe Rabbat / A&MO (refurbish)
MODEL:
Space Lux
MORE INFO:
www.salle-pleyel.com (customer)
The Salle Pleyel is named after the Pleyel piano manufacturer, which is home to the Paris orchestra, and located on the famous Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore. It all started when the Pleyel piano manufacturer decided to invest in building a hall that would be purely dedicated to concert music.
The Salle Pleyel was designed by the architect Gustave Lion in a modern style for the time and it had a 3,000 seat auditorium, and was inaugurated on 19 October 1927 with a very impressive concert. However, it was less than nine months before tragedy struck when a fire ravaged through the auditorium, and unfortunately the branch of the Maison Pleyel that managed the building never recovered from this financial shock.
The Salle Pleyel concert hall was renovated and reduced in size down to 2,400 seats and became the property of the bank Credit Lyonnais, who had originally granted the loan for its construction.
The Salle Pleyel gradually picked up and then became the most celebrated concert hall in Paris along with becoming the residence of the Orchestre de Paris, and Igor Stravinsky who is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the 20th century, returned to the concert hall in 1957 to direct his Agon.
The concert hall continued to be a great success and even though this concert continued to enthral audiences, unfortunately the Credit Lyonnais got into financial difficulties and in 1998 the Salle Pleyel was put up for sale.
Put onto the supplementary list of historical monuments in Paris, the restoration of the facades, the hall and the foyer begun and some of the lost architecture was recovered including the rotunda that was transformed into a vast foyer and now has the original art deco elegance as it used to have.
The great hall was given a more seductive appearance and the comfort of its patrons was greatly improved upon by the installation of completely new chairs and these were reduced in number to only just over 1,900 in order to provide each person with more room. The balconies were re-terraced to provide better visibility and the first balcony has 400 seats, the second has seating for 300 people and the four side balconies can seat 19 people each.
In addition to these improvements, the lateral walls and the ceiling were completely modified, which resulted in an increase in the reverberation time of around 20 percent, plus the playing area was rearranged to generate more efficient acoustics for better quality of listening for the audience, and to reduce the distance between the musicians and its patrons.
The building that houses the cloakrooms, dressing rooms, recording studio and common rooms was completely rebuilt around a new stairwell that means it can accommodate the needs of large international orchestras with ease.
Our Space Lux chair with synchro system for seat and back was selected for this incredible venue – aluminum standards and different configurations for getting the best positioning. And here with an innovative removable system applied to a great number of chairs in the Stalls here: all chairs can be rapidly and individually removed thanks to a plate integrated into the floor.