For a good half hour, work on the restoration and refurbishment of the Beethovenhalle was suspended. General Music Director (GMD) Dirk Kaftan and around 60 members of the Beethoven Orchester Bonn (BOB) gave a construction site concert in the Great Hall of the Beethovenhalle with works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner and Johann Strauss (son). Both those involved in the project and the musicians gained a first impression of the hall's "new" acoustics.
"The Beethoven Orchester Bonn is back at its old venue with a large team for the first time since construction work began," said Bonn's Mayor Katja Dörner in her welcoming address. She combined her thanks to BOB with equally heartfelt thanks to all project participants and construction workers for their commitment on the construction site. "This short concert is an important sign: We are still on schedule - and the Beethovenhalle will be open to the public again from 16 December 2025," emphasized Katja Dörner.
"The orchestra and I have used our eight years on the road to discover new places and make many new friends and partners in Bonn and the region. It is with great anticipation that we are now planning to return to our new old home with our audience, which has grown to record levels, and to fill it with emotion and sound. The new studio offers the Beethoven Orchestra perfect conditions and artistic perspectives. We are looking forward to it and see it as our task to 'recharge' the hall in a positive way," said GMD Dirk Kaftan.
The Great Hall is almost finished
The backdrop was also already in place. The hall is finished except for a few small details: The historic hall paneling made of Japanese Sen wood once again adorns the walls all around, and the finished new smoked oak parquet is well protected under cover panels. The step lights are already shining on the tier, and the overall picture is rounded off by the restored Rabitz ceiling in soft yellow, in which the ceiling lighting, which has been converted to energy-saving LED lights, shines down festively on the concert.
At the beginning of August 2024, the commissioning phase of the building was started in the concert hall. Since then, the ventilation system has been running, supplying the room with fresh air. The path from the main entrance to the hall also already looks the way visitors will enter it from December 2025. Although the floor is still covered with wood fiber boards, these only serve to protect the floor coverings that have already been completed, consisting of cast stone in the ticket hall, terrazzo tiles in the checkroom and robinia wood parquet in the grand foyer.
The ceilings have already been restored to their historical colors - from the deep blue of the ticket hall to the light grey of the checkroom and the beige ceiling of the foyer. Hanging from the latter, currently protected in blue bags and still rolled up, are the characteristic pendant lights in front of the large glass façade. As this area is now free of dust-free work, the large mural by artist Joseph Fassbender was also freed from its protective housing at the end of September, which protected it from the elements during the construction period.
The Macassar ebony hall doors with their bronze handles are still missing. These will return at the end of the year, freshly restored and acoustically enhanced, once the restoration work on the 26-metre-long mural, in which the hall entrances are positioned, has been completed.
