The history of the Reduta building as a multipurpose public building began in 1901, when the city of Bratislava, as one of the cultural centers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, purchased the former Theresian granary, built on the banks of the Danube in 1773 on the orders of Maria Theresa. After the granary was demolished, the city built a multifunctional building in the Neo-Baroque style with Rococo and Art Nouveau elements between 1913 and 1919. The very name of the building, Reduta, implies, from a linguistic point of view, when interpreted in French ("redoute" – ball, dance hall, etc.), a public-benefit multifunctional building. It was originally the seat of several associations, commercial and cultural organizations, and served the public of Bratislava on a large scale for musical events, dance parties, performances, and similar services.
Reduta became the seat of the Slovak Philharmonic only in the early 1950s during the post-war Czechoslovak Republic. The focus of its activities was the provision of public benefit, especially cultural services to the public, focused on a varied concert life. Artists and performers not only from Slovakia but also many foreign guests from all over the world performed in this building. During this period (in 1956), an organ was built in the concert hall of the Slovak Philharmonic and placed under the window in the facade of the part of the building facing Medená Street. It is a four-manual and 85-register Rieger-Kloss organ. The organ has electro-pneumatic structures and one sliding playing table. It was built by the Organ Factory based in Krnov in what is now the Czech Republic. Its current condition is mainly affected by problems with the quality of materials available on the market in the post-war Czechoslovak Republic in the mid-1950s. Regardless of this fact, the architecture (design) of this monumental musical instrument has become a symbol not only of the Reduta building but also of the Slovak Philharmonic.
After the Velvet Revolution, the Reduta building was gradually transformed to correspond to a multifunctional cultural facility with a rich European musical tradition, and at the same time, a decision was made to reconstruct and complete the building.