Kopenhagen, DR Koncerthuset (91/IV/P, 2009)

DR-BYEN

Currently DR-BYEN (Danish Radio & TV BYEN) is housed in the centre of Copenhagen. Due to expansion plans of the digital multimedia productions already in 1999 was decided to move all ± 3.000 employees of the current 10 location from the centre of the city to one new building complex in the northern area of the city.

The total floor area will be 110.000 m². Part of the complex, worth 404 million Euro, is a newly build concert hall with an inner height of 24 meters. The large hall will seat about 2000 people. The French architect Jean Nouvel from Paris designed the concert building, which also houses three smaller halls. Works will be completed by the end of the year 2006.

Currently a scale model (1:10) of the new concert hall is being made. After completion specialists of the Japanese firm NAGATA ACOUSTICS will finish their calculations.

The organ

By the end of December 2002, Van den Heuvel was asked by DR-BYEN to enter the competition for the new concert organ and a movable positive. According European guidelines 7 international organbuilders were selected to draw up their plans.

Jan L. van den Heuvel - Orgelbouw bv was the winner of the international competition between 7 European organbuilders.

The philosophy of DR’s first director “The best, only the best” was also applied to the organbuilders. The builders and there referenced organs were critically examined. The most important criteria were artistic and technical qualities. On both criteria Van den Heuvel was awarded with the most points.

Peter van den Heuvel (l) en de "project executive" van het nieuwe
DR-gebouwencomplex Kjeld Boye-Møller (r).

On 23 October 2003 the contract was signed for one of the most important concert organs in Denmark. This prestigious 32-feet organ will be, with 91 stops (about 6000 pipes), divided on 4 manuals and pedal, one of the biggest in the country. Besides this also a contract for a 5 stop positive organ for on the stage was awarded.

V.l.n.r. Gordon Alsing (Execute Manager & Producer van het
Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra & Choirs), Niels Erik Lund
(Radio-inspecteur, secretaris orgelcommissie), Peter van den Heuvel,
Per Salo (Pianist & Organist Radio Symphony Orchestra),
Flemming Dreisig (externe orgel consultant & domorganist).

At the end of 2007, the organ was finished in the assembly in Dordrecht and fully playable. In the spring of 2008, the impressive concert hall was almost finished and the installation of the organ could start.

The inauguration of the concert hall with organ took place on 17 January 2009. More than 1800 guests, including the Danish Queen Margrethe, Crown Prince and the other members of the royal family, attended the ceremony.

Concept

The highly symphonic organ will be a unique instrument in the organ-landscape of Denmark. To give the performer maximal flexibility and control over the instruments resources the organ will feature no less than 3(!) swell boxes. A moveable console provides the performer with an optimal listening distance to the organ.

Only the Pédale and Grand-Orgue will be not enclosed, the other 3 manual departments will be enclosed in separate swell boxes: Positif, Récit, Solo (including the Tubas). Solo and the Tubas are played from manual IV. The Tubas are on high pressure (380mm, 15inch). The Solo also features a single ranked un-enclosed chamade trumpet.

The movable console with electric action is connected to a pneumatic device to engage the tracker-action to the wind chests for the basses and Pédale. Trebles are operated by electric action. The stop action is electric too and is equipped with a memory system allowing the performer to pre-set the stop combinations.

Since quite operation of the wind supply is demanded it is completely enclosed. Also the wind motors are regulated so they spin down when they are not used.

Pictures

Windchests

The wind chests are certainly one of the most important parts of the organ: their quality and construction is extremely important for the whole instrument. To receive the ultimate sound-colors, it is important the pipes receive their wind from a wind chest with note channels. For this reason mechanical slider chests are very important. To guarantee a quiet speech onset, the length of a note channel never should be too long. When the divisions are very large, one should decide to build several pallet boxes to guarantee the best quality for all, even if this is more expensive. The large scaled flue stops will be placed on off sett wind chests with their own wind supply.

Assembly hall

Pictures of the organ assembly in our main hall. (244)

Visits

Pictures of several visits from the customer to our workshop. (51)

Build-up at DR

Pictures of the assembly in Copenhagen. (113)

Placing the façade