By Royal Appointment

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks / Adam Fischer / Frank Peter Zimmermann - Herkulessaal Munich, 22 October 2010

There can’t be many royal palaces with their own regular concert venues, but Munich’s Residenz has two. The twinkly baroque Cuvilliés-Theater shows opera, mostly during the summer festival season. The mausoleum-like Herkulessaal, draped with the labours of Hercules in fake-tapestry form, is the part-time home of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Raised from bomb-flattened ruins in the 1950’s, it was supposed to fade into the background when the ghastly Gasteig was built in the ‘80’s. Neither one is perfect. The Herkulessaal is too small, the Gasteig too big. Both are ugly, acoustically dry and limited in the type of repertoire that can be performed to advantage.