From our own workshop

Concert shell in the Haus für Mozart as an upgrade

The new concert shell in the Haus für Mozart.

(Bild: SF/Neumayr/Leo)

With the construction of a new concert shell, the performance conditions in the Haus für Mozart have been significantly enhanced in terms of sound. The mobile concert room, planned and manufactured in the in-house workshops, is a custom-made construction consisting of two side walls, a rear wall and a ceiling.

The concert shell enables the musicians to hear each other better, reflects the sound and directs the sound into the auditorium in a clear, natural and unadulterated way. The construction is primarily used for orchestral concerts with or without the participation of a choir.

"We are delighted that the new concert shell, which was manufactured in our in-house workshops, enables us to significantly improve the already good acoustic conditions in the Haus für Mozart once again," says Artistic Director Markus Hinterhäuser.

Planning and construction took four months
In order to meet the acoustic, technical and aesthetic requirements even better, the team around the Technical Directorate of the Salzburg Festival with its Director Andreas Zechner and the designated equipment and workshop manager Sandrina Schwarz, who was entrusted with the project management and design, set themselves the task of building a concert shell to the most modern standards. The project was then planned and prepared for around a month, and the entire timber and steel construction was then produced in the Salzburg Festival workshops within a period of three months.

All structural, static and technical questions and tasks, from the design of the walls with convex surfaces and the use of the right materials to the arrangement of a sufficient number of stepped platforms to meet the individual requirements of choir and orchestra concerts, were solved with in-house expertise. For the arrangement of the orchestra and choir in the back rows, five eleven-meter-wide and one-meter-deep stepped platforms and a wooden grandstand were constructed.

For each of the 15 side and rear wall elements, core ash veneers were assembled and glued to wooden panels. These veneer-wood panels were placed on a wooden support structure and glued together to form a seven meter long and one and a half meter wide frame. During wood processing, the veneer was sampled in close cooperation with the Austrian company Frischeis and developed from a single trunk of a core ash tree. The frame was connected to a steel construction and positioned vertically. These elements can be stored to save space and can also be set up quickly. Ceiling lights are embedded in the four-part ceiling. The ceiling sails are suspended from the upper machinery at an angle of 15 degrees.

Space-saving storage in the stage area
In addition to the safe and smooth handling of the walls and ceiling, space-saving storage in the stage area and the time required to set up and dismantle the concert shell are particularly important in day-to-day operations. These requirements were optimally fulfilled as a result of the realization.