Is musical Hamburg catching up on Berlin? There are several reasons to believe so: last September, Thomas Hengelbrock was appointed musical director of the NDR Symphony Orchestra. Hengelbrock is known for his performances on period instruments and is breathing new life into this radio orchestra, which had been a little unadventurous lately. If travelling to Hamburg for a concert is impractical, you can enjoy their work on CD, in an inspired and effervescent Fourth Symphony by Schumann (Sony), proving that Thomas Hengelbrock is not just an expert in Baroque music, far from it… But what is attracting everybody's attention these days in Hamburg is the new concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie. The building, which is still under construction in the free port district, is already spectacular. Architects Herzog and De Meuron (to whom we owe the magnificent conversion of the Tate Gallery in London) designed a glass structure on top of an old brick warehouse. The building will contain three concert halls, the largest of which is inspired by the vineyard style seat arrangement of the Berlin Philharmonie, plus a hotel and some luxury appartments. This project of a new nature is posing two major problems: its total cost keeps rising, and is already over 300 million euros - a delicate matter is these difficult economic times. And neither the city of Hamburg nor the architects can tell when the building will be completed. Until then, Berlin still has a bright future ahead of her.