Creativity Quote by Esa-Pekka Salonen

There’s a sly radicalism in how casually Salonen praises the Royal Festival Hall: “nice,” “people hang out,” “inviting.” He’s not reviewing acoustics or bragging about prestige; he’s valuing the building as a piece of civic life. For a world-class conductor-composer, that’s a quiet rebuke to the old model of classical music as a velvet-rope experience where you enter, behave, and leave. The point isn’t just comfort. It’s permeability.

The phrase “non-exclusive character” does heavy lifting. Salonen is gesturing at the social optics of classical music - who feels entitled to be in the room, who’s anxious about dress codes, ticket prices, or not knowing when to clap. By framing the hall as a place to “hang out,” he’s shifting the concert venue from temple to town square. That shift matters because classical institutions now compete less on repertoire than on relevance: whether they can be part of everyday urban culture rather than an occasional, high-stakes outing.

Contextually, the Royal Festival Hall sits at the center of the Southbank, designed as a public-facing arts campus with foyers that function like indoor streets. Salonen’s intent reads as institutional strategy as much as personal preference: if you want new audiences, you don’t start with marketing slogans; you start by building spaces that don’t ask people to prove they belong. The subtext is blunt: inclusion isn’t a program. It’s architecture, atmosphere, and the social permission to linger.