The city of Hamburg has been seen as something of a musical backwater compared with, say, Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden and Munich. But its ambition knows no bounds and its project to build the iconic concert hall of the 21st century is spoken of locally in the same breath as two other German construction follies where the costs spiralled out of all control – Berlin airport (€8bn) and Stuttgart railway station (€6bn).

The city’s state-of-the-art venue, which already dominates the skyline although it is still years from completion, was originally due to be finished by 2009 and when the city made a contract with the architects in 2006 the total cost was going to be €180m.

How quickly things change: the projected cost rose to €320m, then €585m. Then someone realised that they hadn’t added on the tax, so the latest cost estimate has risen to €785m, with an earliest completion date of summer 2016 and a projected opening in the spring of 2017. But this is still a building site and no one would be taking any bets yet on when the hall really will stage its first concert.

Not that German civic pride is easily dented. No matter how much they may be paying for it, 69 per cent of Hamburgers still support the Elbphilharmonie project and the new philharmonic hall will be a landmark not only in Hamburg but for Germany as a whole. Thomas Hengelbrock’s NDR Symphony Orchestra rather than the Hamburg Philharmonic will be the resident orchestra, but it will also be a magnet for orchestras from all over the world – the Concertgebouw had originally been invited for the planned opening in 2009!

Meanwhile, back at the Staatsoper, Simone Young has been doing her level best to prove that Hamburg – traditionally better known for the theatre – is no slouch in the operatic field. In the space of three weeks her Wagner-Wahn festival has staged all 10 of the composer’s main operas, including a fascinating Ring. I saw Das Rheingold and immediately regretted that I couldn’t stay for the rest of the cycle. In Claus Guth’s production, we are not at the beginnings of time, rather at a rebirth after some local cataclysm. There is a lot of, often latent, humour in the Ring and Guth and Young have exploited it to the maximum. The gods danced their way into Valhalla at the end of Rheingold very merrily, notwithstanding the impending doom Wotan’s actions had set in train. Get a flavour of it (though with a different cast) from Young's live recording when the production was new in 2008 (Oehms Classics OC 925).

If this Rheingold is typical of the quality of the Wagner-Wahn and Young’s work in her eight years as both conductor and administrator of the Opera and the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hamburgers should be pleased that they appointed this vibrant Australian. Not everyone is.

Young herself told me she had decided to leave Hamburg in July 2015, after completing 10 years in the city, where she’s had responsibility for all the financial management as well as the musical standards. During her tenure she has increased the orchestral strength to 128 desks and the house now receives a public subsidy of €47m a year. ‘The excitement generated by the Wagner-Wahn has been beyond our expectations,’ she told me. ‘All 10 nights have been a sell-out even though all 10 productions have been seen in the city before. I’ve decided to leave because 10 years in one city is the maximum that I feel I have to offer. After 10 years I need new horizons, new challenges and the city needs a new focus as well. But I’ll be leaving the house in a very healthy artistic state.’

Dr Alexander Steinhilber, head of music at Hamburg’s culture department, told me a different story. He said the city had declined to renew Young’s contract, adding: ‘The orchestra are not always doing their best for her. They need a new conductor very, very urgently.’ A powerful dissident voice, maybe, but I have to use the evidence of my ears and it was telling when I asked Steinhilber how much of the Wagner-Wahn he had actually been to and he said none, before adding, a little lamely perhaps, that it was all sold out.

Two of the operatic achievements of which Young is proudest are Aribert Reimann’s Lear and (in an anniversary year co-production with the Royal Opera House) Britten’s underrated and unjustly neglected Gloriana, which includes some of the composer’s loveliest choral part-music (I enjoyed it in the sixties at Saddler’s Wells and again this month, when the Hamburg production came to Covent Garden). But I think she can be massively proud of her Ring too. Hamburg is buzzing musically. Young has played a significant role in this – and when, whenever, the Elbphilharmonie finally opens Hamburg will be fighting with Berlin, Leipzig and the rest for German musical supremacy.