The Dalles Endowment - A Brief History

The Dalles Endowment, Front View – 1936

(Photo credit: armyuser.blogspot.com)

The Dalles Hall is a legendary concert venue of „Little Paris” - as the city was once caressed. It was second just to the Romanian Atheneum, but with 400 seats only and a spartan simplicity of décor it conveyed an intimacy that the larger and more ornate see of the Bucharest Philharmonic couldn”t provide.

The story of Dalles Hall goes back to the 1860's, when Ioan G. Dalles bought the Bucsani estate near Targoviste, 50Km North-East of Bucharest, but the 3,500+ acres of forests and many more acres of large fields and orchards never hinted to the rich oil reserves underneath. With this chancey acquired wealth, the Dalles familiy moved high up and fast to the rarefied spheres exclusively inhabited by the Romanian plutocracy.

Facing a cruel fate – in spite of many philantropic deeds, the Dalles family lost their last heir in 1914 when Ioan I. Dalles died unexpectedly at 35. Feeling that her end was not too far away, his mother Elena Dalles wrote her will in 1918 and  bequeathed the Romanian Academy with what was later to become the Dalles Endowment.

The Dalles Endowment – View from the Carlton Building (Balcescu corner Campineanu)

(The Carlton was the city's tallest building. It collapsed during the 1940 earthquake)

(Photo credit: armyuser.blogspot.com)

The moment for the endowment was rightly chosen: just after World War One with Greater Romania born at the Paris Conference from the ashes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Transylvania joining the United Principalities (Moldavia and Walachia), Bucharest knew a  quick and steady development. The city”s North-South axis was to be enlarged into a wide boulevard and many houses left and right – including some owned by the Dalles family – were to be expropriated against generous compensation and demolished.

Therefore, Elena Dalles donated her houses with the land beneath to the Romanian Academy, willing that after their eventual expropiation and demolition „some 10%” of the money to be received should be kept for maintenance, while the rest of the capital should be used to raise a „beautiful and large building” based on a blueprint approved by the Acedemy, „such that it should have all the necessary rooms for all kind of exhibits: painting, sculpture, architecture, weawing, traditional stitching, aso., then also for examinations, for musical and drama auditions and finally for lectures or conferences of the Association of the Popular University in Bucharest, as well as of other institutions which might be established with the aim of forming the characters of Romanian citizens through cultivation and education of their souls”.

The Dalles Will was opened in 1921 and was recognized by the Royal Decree of King Ferdinand Ist from January 30th, 1922. Ten years later, on May 29th, 1932, the Ioan I. Dalles Endowment opened its gates to the public.

The Dalles Endowment – Blueprint

(Square left: exhibition hall; trapese middle: concert hall; rectangle right: foyer, further right: garden)

(Photo credit: armyuser.blogspot.com)

Being located in the absolute center of Bucharest, the Dalles Endowment became much more familiar to the city dweller's soul than other similar locations such as the Atheneum and the Royal Foundation, which were more solemn, more ornate and therefore more distant. On the contrary, through its simplicity of design the Dalles Endowment came closer to one's soul.

Throughtout the years, the Dalles Endowment was home to many art exhibits where famous works by major Romanian artists were displayed, while the concert hall hosted recitals by the country”s most cherished musicians, starting with George Enescu.

Factory Seal on bronze plate of Steinway & Sons piano at Dalles Hall

(Photo credits: Popular University Ioan I. Dalles, Bucharest)

The Dalles Endowment acquired a concert piano from Steinway & Sons in 1933, which is still to be seen at the hall and in quite good shape. It is 2.25 metres long and bears the Serial Number 275458. George Enescu is said to have played this piano during many of his 50+ recitals held between 1940 and 1946 at the Dalles Endowment. When he was not playing the piano, George Enescu played violin and was accompanied by one of the many good pianists of the time.

It is the aim of the Dalles Fund to restore thepiano and give it back to the musical world, allowing top musicians of our time to hear music they play the way George Enescu did, as he loved the sound of this hall and the deep, heavy, velvety, solemn middle and low tones of „his” Steinway, well-informed historians say.

.

Apartment Building raised in 1960 on and above the façade of the Dalles Endowment

(Dark blue firm marks the entrance to Dalles Hall; far right: the Intercontinental Hotel, a city landmark)

(Photo credis: Mihnea Tobescu)

After World War Two the Dalles Endowment was dissolved and because of the generous exhibition space it included it was incorporated into the „Art Museum of the Popular Republic of Romania” ,that had just been established starting with the takeover of the Royal Pinacotheque.

The Dalles Endowment - view from the art exhibit halls

(Photo credit: armyuser.blogspot.com)

In the late 1950s, with the Soviet Army having just left, new initiatives aimed to correct and improve the lines of  Bucharest avenues and to put away the effects of the heavy war bombardments. Therefore, the new city dwellers decided to replace the façade of the now-a-thing-of-the-past Dalles Endowment and the tiny square in front of it with a huge apartment building in genuine realist-socialist style, with a hint of the former fascist ahitecture of jadis.

Balcescu Blvd. with Dalles Apartment Building on the rise, 1960

(Photo credit: armyuser.blogspot.com)

But the torments of the now-defunct Dalles Endowment didn”t come to an end with the hiding of the edifice behind an apartment building. The physical defragmentation followed.

In 1963 the actual propaganda nucleus of the communist regime was formally established as the „Central Lecturate of the State Council for Culture and Arts” and was endowed with the „Dalles Hall with the annexes and dependencies, except for the cellar”, while the exhibition hall remained in the custody of the Art Museum, where it still resides nowadays. A decade later, when traces of Stalinism were being discretely obliterated from Romanian public life, the „Central Lecturate” was quietly re-baptised „Popular University of Bucharest”, thus returning part of the Endowment to its initial aim stated in the Elena Dalles will.

Foyer of Dalles Hall. Left: doors to concert hall; right: wardrobe behind exhibit panels and door to garden

(Photo credits: SVF MANAGEMENT PROD SRV SRL, Bucharest)

At present, the Dalles Hall is the see of the „Ioan I. Dalles Popular University of Bucharest” and a portrait in oil of Ioan I. Dalles adorns the East wall of the Foyer. The hall is now mostly used for conferences of all kinds: from „How to sell This-And-That Muscle Builder” to a presentation of the Romanian Ambassador to UNESCO”s new book on contemporary Romanian literature in the presence of the Author.

Musical Soirées are not exactly many nowadays, but Musical Academy students often make their way to Dalles Hall as the location perfectly exposes (and enhances) vocal qualities and is perfect for chamber music events, from piano recitals (on a 1958-manufactured, 2.55 metres Bechstein Concert Grand), to trios, quartets and even chamber orchestras who can manage around the piano that cannot be taken away from the stage.

The hall's unique acoustics originate from the carefully calculated and meticulously built curved ceiling, a work of art in itself created by an architect-cum-doctor-in-mathematics, who is said to have computed reflections and return times of most of the common sound wawes in the auditorium and has thus granted a fabulous  presence and immediacy of sound to most of the sitting areas. Helas, the noble wood baguettes that once adorned and stiffened the soundproof walls have been removed by an „art-loving” accountant during the Communist regime, alledgedly because they were „disliked” by „Comrade Elena Ceausescu” who kept visiting the venue when reunions were hosted during the party congresses. Fortunately, for the genre of music that Dalles Hall usually hosts the loss in sound quality is small. And the wooden walls can and will be replaced.

Left side of stage with Bechstein Concert Grand piano

(Photo credits: SVF MANAGEMENT PROD SRV SRL, Bucharest)

A thorough renovation of Dalles Hall is long overdue, more so now that interest in Romanian classical music and musicians is on the rise in preparation of the George Enescu Festival and Competition 2011. At past editions, Dalles Hall hosted some sections of the Competition, but we strongly believe that a Festival section should certainly find its home here for the years to come.

With the George Enescu Piano refurbished and the auditorium, foyer and garden renovated, Dalles Hall must and will become the attraction of the Enescu Festival as far as chamber music and recitals are  concerned.

Enjoy!

-----

The Dalles Fund. 

Informal Group. Manager: Mihai Hristu. Phone +40 728 699521.E-mail: cchdtv@gmail.com 

Established for the Restauration of The George Enescu Piano and the Renovation of the Dalles Hall, Bucharest. 

Donations are welcome and deductible according to Law Nr. 34 / 1994 passed by the Romanian Parliament,  with subsequent modifications, republished. 

Bank Account: RO84CECEC001946256016911, Bank Name: CEC Bank, BIC Code: CECEROBU

Find out more about The Dalles Fund on Facebook  „Dalles Concerts” and Twitter „DallesConcerts”