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The Elbphilharmonie (; "Elbe Philharmonic Hall"), popularly nicknamed Elphi,; is a concert hall in the HafenCity quarter of Hamburg, Germany, on the Grasbrook peninsula of the Elbe River.
The new construction resembles a hoisted sail, water wave, iceberg or quartz crystal resting on top of an old brick warehouse (, built in 1963) near the historical Speicherstadt. The project is the result of a private initiative by the architect and real estate developer Alexander Gérard and his wife Jana Marko,Joachim Mischke/Michael Zapf: „Elbphilharmonie Hamburg“, Edel Books Hamburg, 2016, pages 46–65 an art historian, who commissioned the original design by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, who developed and promoted the project (since 2003 in cooperation with the Hamburg-based real estate developer and investor Dieter Becken) for 3.5 years until the City of Hamburg decided to develop the project by itself. It is the key project of the new Hafencity development and the tallest inhabited building in Hamburg, with a final height of .
The Elbphilharmonie was officially inaugurated with concerts of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and a light show on 11 January 2017.
In 2007, the construction was scheduled to be finished by 2010 with an estimated cost of €241 million. In November 2008, after the original contract was amended, the costs for the project were estimated at €450 million. In August 2012, the costs were re-estimated to be over €500 million, which should also cover the increased cost for a strengthened roof. Construction work officially ended on 31 October 2016 at a cost of €866 million. Opening concert for Elphi on 11/12 January 2017, web.de
The first public test concert at the Elbphilharmonie was held on 25 November 2016. The official opening concert took place on 11 January 2017 with a performance by the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under direction of Thomas Hengelbrock. The first musical selection was "Pan" from Benjamin Britten's Six Metamorphoses after Ovid.
The project was criticized because of its cost and schedule overruns; construction was originally estimated to cost about €200 million, while the final cost was €870 million. However, upon completion, Der Spiegel in a comparative analysis suggested that the overrun was relatively "modest" compared to some other international mega-projects.
The group stage draw for the UEFA Euro 2024 was held here.
The Elbphilharmonie has three concert venues. The Great Concert Hall can accommodate 2,100 visitors whereby the performers are in the center of the hall surrounded by the audience in the vineyard style arrangement. The acoustics were designed by Yasuhisa Toyota who installed about 10,000 individually microshaped drywall plates to disperse sound waves. The Great Concert Hall contains a pipe organ with 69 registers built by Klais Orgelbau. The Recital Hall is intended for the performance of recitals, chamber music and jazz concerts; it can hold an audience of 550 people. In addition, there is the Kaistudio that allows for 170 visitors and is intended to serve educational activities. The consultant for the scenography of the concert hall was Ducks Scéno.
The easternmost part of the building is rented by Westin Hotels which runs the Westin Hamburg Hotel. The hotel opened on 4 November 2016. The hotel offers 250 rooms and 47 condominiums that are serviced. The hotel was designed by the architects of Herzog & de Meuron to provide guests with port of Hamburg panoramas. It was constructed on an existing red-brick building that used to be a warehouse. (2025). 9781135140892, Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781135140892
Some complaints about poor acoustics in the hall have been aired. After the grand opening on 11 January 2017, some musicians as well as conductors called the acoustics in the hall "appalling" and "terrible". Further, in a 2019 performance of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, audience members shouted, "can't hear you" at tenor Jonas Kaufmann,Joachim Mischke. "Jonas Kaufmann sang, einige Zuschauer störten" Hamburger Abendblatt 13 January 2019 Retrieved 5 October 2022 who himself later complained, "This hall does not help...".Joachim Mischke. "Nie wieder Elbphilharmonie? Jonas Kaufmann kritisiert Klang." Hamburger Abendblatt. 19 March 2019. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
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