Bristol’s new concert hall is extremely fine

Bristol has a new concert hall, and it’s rather good. The transformation of the old Colston Hall into the Bristol Beacon has been reported as if it was simply a matter of upgrading and renaming. There were probably sound reasons for doing so, but in fact (and despite protests from the Twentieth Century Society) the postwar auditorium has been demolished outright and replaced with a wholly new orchestral hall designed on the best current principles: shoebox-shaped, with much use of wood and textured brick.

Acoustically, it’s extremely fine – not a glamorous sound, but a remarkably transparent one. And while it seats 1,800 people (the individual seats are comfy and capacious), the scale remains human. Even with a capacity audience it feels lively rather than crowded: as if you’re part of something shared. That much was evident from a sold-out concert with the Hallé orchestra and Mark Elder, who are currently making a sort of national victory lap ahead of Elder’s farewell concerts with the orchestra later this summer.

But with a solo appearance from Stephen Hough to sweeten the deal, this was more than just a handy pretext to appraise the new hall. It was that too, and in a work as densely scored as Brahms’s First Piano Concerto it was noticeable how translucent the orchestra sounded, with the lower-middle of the texture benefitting particularly. Bassoons and horns stood out from the turmoil, plaintive and tender by turns, while both Hough and Elder resisted any temptation to play for obvious effects. Their reading was passionate without being melodramatic – serious, articulate music-making with a monumental sense of proportion and purpose.

Only in Hough’s tiny Schumann encore did we get to hear just how delicately it’s possible to play in this new space; and better still, to feel the miraculous sensation of oneness that comes when 1,800 people are sitting in absolute silence and simply listening.