RAINER JOZEPS: Of course Adelaide should have a concert hall! For every orchestra in the world, a contemporary concert hall, with state-of-the-art acoustics, is simply the final “instrument” to complement the ensemble of musicians.
Poor acoustics can make elite musicians sound ordinary. And make no mistake, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra is made up of wonderful, world-class musicians. They deserve much better.
Adelaide is the only capital city in Australia that doesn’t have a concert hall, and that fact is as embarrassing as describing the one-way southern express way to non-South Australians! Even Hobart has a purpose-built concert hall.
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There are approximately 150 professional symphony orchestras in the world, and almost all of them have a concert hall as their home base. International conductors and soloists always want to know about the acoustics of the hall when orchestra managements engage them. As the ASO’s one-time chief executive, I often felt embarrassed to explain that maestro would be playing in a proscenium arch theatre. Their incredulity wasn’t good promotion for Adelaide.
As wonderful as our Festival Theatre is, it isn’t a concert hall. The Adelaide Town Hall has a beautiful acoustic, but with a capacity of only 900, the business side of running a symphony orchestra is strangled. It doesn’t make economic sense.
I’m sure there weren’t votes in building the Festival Centre complex in the 1970s, but look how it defines the city today. Sometimes you just have to do things because they are right to do. It is right to build a concert hall.
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