Concert Hall
The Laeiszhalle, formerly Musikhalle Hamburg, is a concert hall in Hamburg,and home to the Hamburger Symphoniker. The hall is named after the German shipowning company F. Laeisz, founder of the concert venue. The Baroque Revival Laeiszhalle was planned by the architect Martin Haller and inaugurated at its location on the Hamburg Wallring on June 4, 1908. At that time, the Musikhalle was Germany's largest and most modern concert hall.Composers such as Richard Strauss, Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky and Paul Hindemith played and conducted their works in the Laeiszhalle. Pianist Vladimir Horowitz gave one of his first international performances in 1926; violinist Yehudi Menuhin gave a guest performance in 1930 at the age of twelve. Following World War II, which it survived intact, the Laeiszhalle experienced an intermezzo when the British occupying forces used the space temporarily as a broadcast studio for their radio station BFN.Maria Callas gave concerts in 1959 and 1962. In the 1960s the musical repertoire was also panded to jazz and pop music, with performances by Pink Floyd, Lale Andersen, Bee Gees, Udo Jürgens and Elton John.