Turku’s €90 million Fuuga reveals its sound at opening concert

Turku Philharmonic Orchestra will inaugurate the concert hall at Fuuga, the city’s new music centre, at an opening concert on Thursday evening. Yle reports that the audience will hear the hall’s acoustics for the first time during the performance.

The orchestra has rehearsed in the hall for several weeks but has kept its sound under wraps until the concert. Chief conductor John Storgårds described the first rehearsal in October as “quite a shock”. Starting with Mozart, he said, the music sounded unusually exposed and sensitive, and “suddenly everything sounded incredibly easy”.

Opera singer Karita Mattila will perform as soloist. Noora Hirn and Lola Odusoga will host the concert.

Fuuga, which took three years to build and has attracted international interest, opened to the public in late October. Yle will broadcast the concert live at 18:30 on Yle Areena and Yle Radio 1, with a delayed broadcast at 20:00 on Yle Teema.