Tonhalle Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf's Tonhalle occupies the domed building designed by Wilhelm Kreis as a planetarium for the GeSoLei exhibition of 1926. The building subsequently served other public functions and was known as the Rheinhalle before its conversion into a concert hall. The new Tonhalle opened in 1978 after work led by Helmut Hentrich, and a further renovation followed in 2005. It is the concert home of the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, whose work is divided between symphonic performances and productions of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. The former planetarium's circular structure remains the defining architectural feature of the hall, connecting its present musical use with the exhibition complex of the 1920s. The largest planetarium in the world when Wilhelm Kreis completed it in 1926 for the GeSoLei exhibition, the domed rotunda by the Rhine spent half a century at other work before the city converted it into a concert hall, in use as such since 1978. The dome that once carried a projected sky now carries sound over 1,854 seats. The Düsseldorfer Symphoniker are resident, dividing the year between symphonic programmes here and the pit of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.