Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, Oxford
The Sohmen Concert Hall’s acoustics made Scottish Ensemble’s Shostakovich pinprick clear, while the Great Hall showcased Devlin and Muhly’s ‘choral installation’
In 1676 London musician Thomas Mace proposed a bold idea. Instead of enduring the “inconveniences of talking, crowding, sweating and blustering”, audiences should be able to enjoy music in a dedicated space: a “musick room … convenient and fit to perform in”. For the first time concert-going was open to anyone for the price of a ticket, though this hungry new audience had to wait until 1748 and the construction of Oxford’s Holywell Music Room – Europe’s oldest custom-built public concert hall – for the fulfilment of Mace’s vision and a room of their own.
Since then, concert halls have become a mirror to changing fashions, priorities and politics. Compare the gorgeous fantasy of the 19th-century’s Royal Albert Hall to the sleek postwar functionality of the Royal Festival Hall. In Oxford the Holywell has since been joined by several others, though none without their issues – until now.
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Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, OxfordThe Sohmen Concert Hall’s acoustics made Scottish Ensemble’s Shostakovich pinprick clear, while the Great Hall showcased Devlin and Muhly’s ‘choral installation’In 1676 Lond...
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