ITALIAN STYLE: Architect Renzo Piano has hit all the right notes with Rome's new state-of-the-art concert complex. It's the way he builds them that count, writes Paddy Agnew.
At first glance, the concept of three great monster beatles masquerading as state-of-the-art concert halls probably does not sound like a brilliant idea for the centrepiece buildings in Rome's brand-new €175 million arts complex-cum-national auditorium. Yet, when it comes to architect Renzo Piano, it's the way he builds them that counts.
Piano, of course, is the man who, among other things, designed the Beauborg (Pompidou) Arts Centre in Paris, the Menil Museum in Houston, Texas and Kansai airport in Osaka, Japan, as well as contributing to the restructuring of Potsdamer Platz in Berlin.
Internationally recognised as one of the most brilliant and innovative architects of his generation, even "Maestro" Piano had to fall in line with one of the oldest cliches in the book when he returned to his native land. Namely, if Rome was not built in a day, then do not be surprised that it has taken more than eight years to (nearly) complete this latest, remarkable work.
Nearly is the operative word. When the auditorium finally opened two weeks ago, only two of the three concert halls were ready. The third and largest hall, intended for set-piece orchestral concerts complete with full symphony orchestra and chorus, will not be inaugurated until December.
While working on the auditorium, too, Piano had occasion to publicly complain of the infinite difficulties of working in his native land, compared with working in France, the US, Japan and Germany.
Not only was his project regularily caught in the crossfire of Rome city politics but it also had to fend off objections from various environmentalist lobbies while it was further delayed by a dispute with, and subsequent replacement of, the original construction company.
Furthermore, any major building project in Rome will eventually be halted when the mechanical diggers unearth yet another piece of ancient Rome. Sure enough, notwithstanding the fact that it is sighted on the northern outskirts of modern Rome, some way from the heart of ancient Rome, the new auditorium, too, came across its unwanted archeological "find" in the shape of a 6th-century BC villa.
In the end, that problem was neatly circumvented by covering it with a glass housing - so that it can now be seen by visitors to the auditorium - and getting on with the rest of the project.
As an Italian, Piano probably knew what to expect. After all, in one sense, the plans for this auditorium have been around since 1934 when dictator Benito Mussolini personally oversaw the demolition of Rome's Augusteo, an art-deco style concert hall that had been built on the alleged sight of the tomb of Emperor Augustus.
Il Duce promised that he would replace the Augusteo with a new concert hall but failed to keep his promise. Since then, Rome has been without a genuine concert hall, with the Santa Cecilia national symphonic orchestra forced to borrow less-than-suitable premises from the Vatican on Via della Conciliazione. In that sense then, for classical music lovers, the most important aspect of the new auditorium complex is that it exists at all.
Not, mind you, that the new auditorium will cater only for classical music, since it is intended be a "music park" where different types of music and cultures will co-exist, "contaminating one another" in the words of Maurizio Pucci, head of Music For Rome, the municipal joint venture that runs the arts complex.
The inaugural day's programme reflected this policy since, while it started off with a rendition of the William Tell Overture by Rossini, it ended with a midnight concert by US rock singer, Patti Smith. In between, there was jazz from the Uri Craine ensemble, gypsy music from Taraf de Haidouks, songs from the Swingle Singers, as well as a concert from virtuoso violinist, Nigel Kennedy.
The point of having three concert halls or "beatles", plus a 3,000-seat outdoor amphitheatre in the very centre of the complex, is to cater for a wide variety of musical and cultural tastes.
Beatle No1, as yet unopened, will seat 2,700 people and is primarily intended for orchestral music. Beatle No2, seating 1,200, will be more flexible, hosting, as it did on the inaugural day, both classical and rock concerts. Beatle No3 comes complete with a moving stage and movable seats for the public; it can be adapted to a wide variety of uses and art forms.
Obviously, the outdoor theatre is likely to lend itself to rock music concerts, as well as to theatrical extravaganzas of the "Notre Dame De Paris" style.
On the all-important question of acoustics, too, most peformers pronounced themselves well pleased with their initial experience of the auditorium's number two, 1,200-seat hall. Violinist Uto Ughi described it as having an "extraordinary acoustic" and representing a "model to be followed, because in Italy we have few concert halls as good as this one", while rock singer Patti Smith called the acoustics "fantastic, absolutely perfect for my voice".
If music lovers, of all kinds, have good reason to greet the new auditorium complex, then architectural students, not to mention local residents, are also likely to welcome the new centre. For residents, it offers a 30,000-square-metre public park.
The complex, when fully functional, will also offer a range of consumer services, including an underground car-park, restaurants and bars. All of this, too, in a country where until very recently, many major museums closed for the afternoon, on Saturdays, Sundays and for the month of August.
From an architectural viewpoint, the new auditorium will generate much interest, if only because it represents arguably the most significant public building project in Rome of the last 40 years, to be ranked along with a Paolo Portoghesi's 1995 Rome Mosque, one of the largest in Europe.
Finally, as to those "beatles" - with a wonderfully rounded roof featuring beams of lamellated wood, held in place with steel, and with ceilings that use US cherry wood (for acoustic purposes), they have all the appearance of a huge, upturned curragh. You ain't seen anything like them before. As we said, it is the way he builds them.
Tourists to Rome should note that the centre will open on Saturdays and Sundays only until December, while the work is being completed.
See the auditorium's website at www.musicaperroma.it