Located in Amsterdam’s Van Baerlestraat and inaugurated on 11 April 1888, the Concertgebouw houses one of the world’s most famous concert halls. It was designed by eminent architect Adolf Leonard van Gendt, who derived inspiration from the Leipzig Gewandhaus (a building opened in December 1884). The interior was likewise modelled on, and laid out like, the Neue Gewandhaus (a building that burned down in February 1944).
The Concertgebouw has a rectangular main hall with rounded corners and foyers (Grote Zaal) as well as a smaller hall (Kleine Zaal) located perpendicularly behind the main one. Its exterior combines the Dutch Neo-Renaissance style with classical elements. There is a monumental façade with gilt ornaments and Apollo’s lyre at the top of the tympanum. The Grote Zaal’s exceptionally good acoustics have made it famous ever since the inaugural concert.
It is in that hall that Józef Koffler’s 15 Veränderungen einer 12-Tonreihe [Fifteen Variations on a Twelve-Note Row] were performed on 6 June 1933 by the Concertgebouworkest under Ignace Neumark as part of the ISCM festival. Other conductors led the same orchestra on that occasion in works by Leo Justinius Kauffmann, Pál Kadosa, Guillaume Landré, and František Bartoš.