Procol Harum: Helsinki, Finland

Kulttuuritalo • Wednesday 1 November 2006

Tickets from www.lippupalvelu.fi (ticketservice Finland): 45 Euros apiece

Timo Holopainen writes: the Concert place is great. Eric Clapton was there 1969 and The Spencer Davies group DVD with Steve (and Muff) Winwood was recorded there in 1966 by YLE. From very early on Kulttuuritalo has been a very popular place for concerts. Aalto Hall has one of the best acoustics in the country.

Kulttuuritalo is one of Alvar Aalto’s major works and his first public building in the metropolitan area. Aalto first sketched Kulttuuritalo on a pack of cigarettes. When it was built in 1958, it looked exactly the same as in the first version!
 

The internationally-known and well-received building is one of the best examples of Aalto’s so-called 'red brick phase'. The wholeness is governed by the asymmetrical Aalto auditorium made of red bricks. The wide fan-like form originates in the idea of having a space that would not seem empty. One half of the asymmetrical auditorium creates a feeling of intimacy and privacy, whereas the other half creates a feeling of an enormous and breathtaking space. To solve the problem in having a free of form brick structure, Aalto designed – for Kulttuuritalo in particular – a wedge-shaped brick that is considered as the gem of Aalto’s 'red brick phase' in the 50s.

Procol dates in 2006