Brno, the city of music in history and in stories – second sequel of Jiří Beneš’ series.
In less than a month, on 3 April (and this year it is the Tuesday after Easter), it will be a hundred and forty years since the grand opening of the Besední dům, one of the most beautiful palaces in Brno. The origin and the following events inside and around this remarkable building have contributed greatly to the history of Brno – its social, political and especially its musical life – and undoubtedly figures such as Leoš Janáček and Karel Sázavský will be remembered on the occasion of the anniversary. The development of its building is of importance too – if we put together the plain enumeration of repairs, innovations, extensions and changes in the interior with all the changes which motivated and accompanied them. Just remember the unbelievable double general (!) reconstructions of the palace within less than two decades – the building, which was given a shine on the occasion of its hundredth anniversary of its opening, had to be vacated fifteen years later and the reconstruction which followed changed the place completely…
The oldest generation of the concert audience in Brno still remembers the situation that the Besední dům was in during the final stage of the War with its air strikes and fighting in the Brno streets. Glazing dozens of broken windows and necessary reconstruction work after the bombardment were under way even during the post-war chaos – and shortly after the Besední dům opened to experience the most brilliant part of its history: there was the top of international concert scene and appreciated the beautiful hall and eager audience in the middle of ravaged Europe. Communist nobility, however, soon put an end to this bourgeois idyll and the Besední dům was given to the army – as well as most buildings of imposing architecture in Brno, which was to become a military city. Soldiers, however, had no idea what to do with the building and finally they started to lease the hall and other facilities to organize concerts which had been scattered all over in alternative rooms; in 1956 the whole palace was handed over to the newly established philharmonic orchestra. You can imagine the condition the building was in; but the philharmonic players were grateful, nevertheless, they also started complaining about insufficient lighting, defective heating, primitive furnishings (the chairs creaked and were noisier than their instruments), and broken window frames...
Stronger than these arguments was water which leaked from the gallery to the floor of the hall due to heavy rain in 1963 (which was a jubilee) and the trickle of which interrupted the recording of Mozart’s Symphony in g minor. The in-depth probe showed that the Besední dům was, technically speaking, falling down and the keeper (the Regional National Committee) decided that it would be completely reconstructed before its hundredth anniversary (1973) and the works would not significantly disturb concerts.
In the promising 1960s the operation was – and had to be – more and more limited: the philharmonic players had to use a system of scaffolding of a kind to get to their place of work and this system was ever-changing so that finally they had to leave their hall and rehearse somewhere in Žabovřesky. That would not be anything special but some of them started to suspect that the fate of the Besední dům was somehow mysteriously associated with history: even for the comrades in the philharmonic orchestra the events in 1968 were a shock and they actually blended with the most critical period of the reconstruction.
However, it lived to see its jubilee in glossy and glamorous shape: philharmonic players went up the new marble stairs to rehearse in the hall ablaze with many lights, the hall – as well as the foyer – was furnished in French rococo style (Louis XVI) where white paint and rich decorations contrasted with dark red upholstery and with large mirrors on the walls. The grandeur could not even lose its appeal when the first cracks started to appear in some of the rooms and the façade outside. A structural engineer was called and he put there special marks, an underground survey was carried out and the expert explained that an accident was not out of the question. The Besední dům is situated on non-homogeneous bedrock of the solid remnants of the old fortification of Brno and also on soft sediment from Špilberk and a stream which used to flow through Údolní street; quakes and vibrations brought about by heavy traffic in Husova street in the past decade caused the foundations to break.
But the philharmonic players knew better: vibrations or not. The Besední dům was announcing its next historical tremor. Concrete injections in the basement were pointless and the underground entrance was forbidden during the time people were clinking their keys in Náměstí Svobody. The exile lasted for over five years this time: all of a sudden there was no money for repairs and the Besední dům was in great danger as it started to quickly become dilapidated and new city officials started to think about its conservation. Only owing to the concentrated efforts of a few selfless people, and especially Mrs Alena Veselá, JAMU rector at that time, the relevant authorities in Brno and Prague were persuaded about the need to save it and to enable another complete reconstruction.
The Philharmonic players who returned in 1995 found their place of work completely changed: luiséz was gone, newly-furnished representational premises corresponded, and still do, with the idea of its designer Hansen – simple colours, furniture shapes copy the furniture of Hansen’s Viennese buildings. The large orchestral needs were catered for by changes in the internal disposition of the building, new partitions, installations and especially the extension of one more (third) floor with so much needed cloakrooms, tuning rooms and rehearsal rooms, so that the philharmonic players ceased to regret the beautiful two-story marble staircase which had been used for only fifteen years and which was gone for good; the audience found better comfort at the entrance from the calm atrium to the monumental foyer with several cloakrooms and could use a new staircase to reach the hall fitted with comfortable chairs through space next to the hall.
Nonetheless, those who have experienced all these events together with the Besední dům always stop for a moment when they enter the palace and they listen: will there be more trouble again soon? The last presidential election was without any shocks for the Besední dům…
