French president steps away from Charlie Hebdo response to open €390m building that Jean Nouvel says is not ready

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

French president François Hollande took a break from overseeing his country’s response to the Charlie Hebdo attacks to open a controversial new concert hall on Wednesday evening.

Hollande flew back to Paris after visiting the French aircraft carrier the General-de-Gaulle, which is being sent to the Gulf to join the US-led operation against Islamic fundamentalists in Iraq, to attend the long-awaited inauguration of the Paris Philharmonie.

The €390m state-of-the-art building on the outskirts of Paris, aimed at democratising classical music, however, opened without its creator, the celebrated prize-winning French architect Jean Nouvel, who snubbed the glittering opening of his creation.

Hollande told a gathering that included several government ministers and Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris: “I hoped to opening this building in less terrible circumstances … we do so with a combination of drama and pride.”

He added: “It’s culture the terrorists wanted to attack. Culture because it is insolent, disrespectful, free, human, the opposite of fundamentalism and fantasism.

“You can assassinate men and women but you cannot kill their ideas. Quite the opposite. Before, Charlie Hebdo was threatened with closure because of a lack of readers. Today it lives again.

“I hear there were even people struggling to get hold of copies … I hope there was no violence.”

Hollande said the new building showed France’s ability to be daring and ambitious.

“Last week, three killers wanted to throw a black veil of horror over our country and take away our liberty, make us afraid, divide us. They did not succeed, and we are proud of that,” the president said.

“Culture and resistance are the spirit of France.”

Hollande added that the building aimed to attract a new audience, particularly youngsters who did not usually go to classical concerts.

“It will offer a ticket for classical music at the price of a cinema ticket”

“Unite, unite, always unite,” he said.

Hidalgo also referred to the bloodshed of last week.

“A week ago fanatics started to sow fear and terror in our country and our city. They tried to reduce us to silence. The place we are gathered her tonight represents the most beautiful, strong and universal response to totalitarianism: that of art,” she said.

Nouvel boycotted the event, saying the massive steel and aluminium structure, which has opened two years late and three times over budget, was not ready, that architectural and technical demands had not been met and that it had not undergone full acoustic tests.

“The Philharmonie has shot itself in both feet,” Nouvel told Le Monde.

“The architect has been martyred, the details sabotaged.”

Nouvel said he had been sidelined and that the Philharmonie director had cut corners against his wishes.

“Construction is going ahead without my approval,” he told Vanity Fair in December. “There is a desire to rush things so as to meet a deadline that is simply not realistic, and is detrimental to quality.”

He also denied any responsibility for the budget overspend and said the construction costs per seat were comparable to other complex building projects. Critics have described the 2,400-seat concert hall, one of the most expensive in Europe, as looking like a stack of paving stones. It sits on the northern edge of the French capital, overlooking the drab ring road known as the Périphérique and will be home to the Orchestre de Paris.

Further controversy has erupted over the decision to promote the new building as replacement for the art deco Salle Pleyel, until now the city’s main symphony hall.

Hollande agonised over whether to pull the plug on the concert hall project, commissioned by his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, after becoming president in 2012.

“There is no question the hall will look amazing,” Paavo Järvi, the music director of the Orchestre de Paris, told France 24 television. “We’ll soon find out whether the sound is just as good.”