Each day until Jan. 1, The Post will take a look at one of New York’s landmarks on the eve of the new millennium. We’ll talk to people who work or visit here about their lives — and their hopes for the coming century. Today: Carnegie Hall.
If New York is ground zero for the planet’s opinionated voices, then Carnegie Hall is the Taj Mahal of its soapboxes.
For more than 100 years, the 57th Street concert hall has been playing to a far more diverse audience than aficionados of Mozart.
Speakers and protesters from Madame Curie to Pete Seeger have enthralled listeners from the parquet floors of Andrew Carnegie’s namesake auditorium.
Carnegie Hall opened its doors to black vocalist Marian Anderson in 1925, years before she was barred from Constitution Hall in Washington because of her race.
It also hosted rallies to free convicted Cold War spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg when that was not a very popular stance.
“There have never been any administrative cliques here to say, ‘No, we don’t like that particular politician,'” said Gino Francesconi, Carnegie Hall’s archivist. “We have been one of the few democratic halls to allow people to say what they have to say.”
Francesconi said the hallmark of the 2,804-seat landmark has always been its wide appeal.
“The Met was only for opera or ballet,” he said. “It was totally elitist.”
One of the marvels of Carnegie, which was home to the New York Philharmonic before the orchestra relocated to Lincoln Center in 1962, is that it hasn’t had to depend on house companies to survive.
“We’re unique in that way,” Francesconi said.
Andrew Carnegie had his grand temple constructed in the middle of nowhere, after his girlfriend (and later wife), Louise Whitfield, convinced him to build a concert hall for the Oratorial Society.
Not one to do anything small, Carnegie had the eight-story building completed by 1891. The trouble was, well-heeled New Yorkers were reluctant to leave the comforts of 14th Street for the wild, wild west of 57th Street.
When it was time for the grand opening, “[Johannes] Brahms said, ‘If [Peter] Tchaikovsky’s not coming, I’m not coming,’ ” related Francesconi. “To ensure it would open with a bang, Carnegie made Tchaikovsky an offer he couldn’t refuse — $2,500 for 20 days’ work. In Europe, Tchaikovsky was making $3,000 a year.”
On the eve of its second new century, Carnegie Hall has surpassed the expectations of even its stoutest skeptics.
“I think Carnegie would have been very happy to see how this hall turned out,” Francesconi said.
NYPOST.COM
Click on Millennium Snapshots at our Web site, http://www.NYPost.com, to read previous entries in this series.