# Your favorite concert halls/venues and why



## Omicron9 (Oct 13, 2016)

Greetings!

I thought it might be interesting to share/compare notes on favorite concert halls and venues.

I'll kick it off: one of my very favorites of all the ones I've visited in the world is Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood. Incredible acoustics from any location, as it was also designed to do double-duty as a recording studio. The interior design is subtle and beautiful.

http://www.rawnarch.com/sites/default/files/project/4_10.jpg

Yours?

Regards,
-09


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

Just curious, how many concert halls have you visited?

And it's a very nice thread you have started. I have a lot to say on this subject, just when I have a little more time


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Leeds Town Hall

A beautiful building outside and inside. Designed by Cuthbert Broderick who won a competition to design the building and opened by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1800s, hence the concerts take place in Victoria Hall.

The hall itself is surrounded by columns with capitals on top. Has a balcony and boxes.

The front outside has a grand entrance with lots of steps leading into the vestry.

As well as the hall, the courts used to be in there and there were police cells below

There is a beautiful tower with clocks on all sides

w


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

Both Symphony Hall in Phoenix and Mesa Arts Center have great acoustics. One modern touch I like at Symphony Hall is that they have a feed of the performance on TVs in the lobby for those who are late or need to step out to take care of urgent needs.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Hill Auditorium on the campus of the University of Michigan. Wonderful sound!

Going to Mahler's 5th there in two weeks, Messiah next month, and Monteverdi's L'orfeo next April!


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

The Soka Performing Arts Center next door in Aliso Viejo. A newer 1,000-seat hall with acoustics by Yasuhisa Toyota, who also designed the acoustics for Walt Disney Concert Hall. All seats are totally unobstructed, visually and aurally. Everybody hears everything. Can be physically configured for orchestral, chamber, and solo performances.

Loads of free parking with student-driven courtesy shuttles for the old, inform, or simply lazy. The Student Union, close by, offers good Asian-flavored food for after the 3:00 PM concerts or before the 8:00 PM ones. A beautiful small campus surrounded on three sides by wilderness parks; the hall looks out on a large lake on the campus. My absolute favorite place to go for music.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Concertgebouw Amsterdam for the acoustic , De Doelen, Rotterdam for nostalgia reason , The Metropolitan opera in New York for obvious reason.


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## R3PL4Y (Jan 21, 2016)

Orchestra Hall in Detroit is not really the most comfortable, but it has really great accoustics. I have talked to members of the orchestra who say it is one of the nicest halls they have ever played in, and I am inclined to agree, having performed there myself.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

KenOC said:


> The Soka Performing Arts Center next door in Aliso Viejo. A newer 1,000-seat hall with acoustics by Yasuhisa Toyota, who also designed the acoustics for Walt Disney Concert Hall.


He is also responsible for designing the acoustics of my favorite concert venue - the Elbphilharmonie.

















One of the things I really like about the building itself is its height. While most of the other concert halls are built pretty "low-riding", the Elbphilharmonie is the tallest habitable building in Hamburg (the only taller ones are things like church spires and the TV tower). The actual concert hall which is hidden behind the glass fassade, starts at 37 meters above the ground and goes to about twice that height. The views of the city and the port of Hamburg out of the foyers are incredible and add to the entire concert experience. I find something very poetic about going up on those heights and leaving the world somewhere far down at my feet for a few hours to enjoy my favorite music (I am going to listen to Richard Strauss' Alpensinfonie there tomorrow, so right now I am especially prone to musing on the spiritual experience of _heights_)

The seats are situated in a circle on all four sides of the stage, and the only drawback to that is that you cannot see the faces of the orchestra from some of them, but the auditory experience is equally great in all of them.


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## T Son of Ander (Aug 25, 2015)

I've been to Orchestra Hall in Detroit and Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, both in Michigan, along with the MET and Chicago's hall for the CSO (forget what they call it - Orchestra Hall?). I agree with those that say Hill in Ann Arbor and Orchestra Hall in Detroit are fantastic. In fact, Detroit is my favorite of those that I've been to. It has amazing acoustics no matter where you sit. I've probably been there 60 times, sat all over the place, and the only seats I didn't like were in the first couple rows on main floor.

Chicago was very underwhelming. I was expecting it to have really good acoustics but was disappointed. No matter how loud they played, it just didn't seem to feel like there was any real volume. It could have been the seats, not sure. The concert was great, as was the playing, but I never felt immersed in the sound.


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## cougarjuno (Jul 1, 2012)

Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in my opinion is without a doubt the best concert hall ever built as far as acoustics. I've been to many and this hall is head and shoulders above the rest. Alice Tully Hall in NYC is fantastic for acoustics and particularly for its sight lines and comfort -- one of the best for chamber music and recitals etc. Architecturally I love the Cincinnati Music Hall and would like to hear what the acoustics are like with the recent renovation.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

I have not been to a lot of halls, but grew up with Boston's Symphony Hall. Enough said.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

KenOC said:


> The Soka Performing Arts Center next door in Aliso Viejo. A newer 1,000-seat hall with acoustics by Yasuhisa Toyota, who also designed the acoustics for Walt Disney Concert Hall. All seats are totally unobstructed, visually and aurally. Everybody hears everything. Can be physically configured for orchestral, chamber, and solo performances.


From an article about the acoustics of the Soka Center:

_The key is found in 10 velour draperies hidden from view, seven in the ceiling and three behind the back and side walls. Cut to different sizes and weighing 28 ounces per square foot, these can be opened or closed with stops in between with no more effort than pushing a button on a remote control that "tunes," if you will, the hall to the amount and kind of sound likely to be generated.
For orchestras, the drapes have been completely opened. Soka's general manager, David C. Palmer, the man on site making the calls, anticipates that for smaller ensembles, such as string quartets, "we will probably deploy the draperies so that they are 25% closed. This will reduce reverberation, and better display a smaller sound."_

That sounds like an interesting solution. For the Elbphilharmonie he came up with a different one, the so-called "white skin", made of 10, 000 gipsum panels covering the walls and reflecting the sound waves in various directions, creating balanced acoustics.









And for chamber and solo music there is a second, smaller concert hall, with about 550 seats, whose walls have a similar panel covering, but made of wood.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Most of the concerts I attend are held in old churches, as we follow an HIP ensemble, Norwich Baroque. The best acoustics (and sight lines) are found in the United Reformed Church in Princes Street, Norwich, and it is also the most comfortable of the usual church venues - though Norwich Cathedral is the most beautiful. I will never forget the concert of September 2015 when Rachel Podger played Bach from the pulpit, like a mellifluous :angel:.

We've been to Snape Maltings twice and the acoustics are good here, and the hall airy and comfortable, though the seats are simple fretwork jobs. Parking beforehand, and getting out afterwards, are both a bit of a palaver.


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Mechanics Hall in Worcester Massachusetts. Great acoustics and just look at the place.








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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Look a lot like the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.


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## Janspe (Nov 10, 2012)

My favourite hall is the one I visit the most often by far: the Helsinki Music Centre, or _Musiikkitalo_ ('music house') in Helsinki. Both the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra are based there, and I go there 2-3 times a month. If you ever visit Helsinki, make sure to drop by!


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I miss the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. The sound was never perfect but it had a charm about it. Probably just nostalgia speaking and memories of seeing the Halle Orchestra there.


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

I can't claim to be objective, as I have a connection to the 92nd St. Y. Kaufmann Concert Hall (aka Kaufmann Auditorium) is a multi-function facility but since the 1930s it's held classical music concerts. It was the home for the Budapest String Quartet for several decades. (And Martha Graham during the same era.) For about 15 years it had its own orchestra. I've seen Schiff, Arrau, Brendel (both in recital and reading his light verse), Ma, Perlman, countless chamber music groups and many others perform.

I've also seen Toni Morrison, Kazuo Ishiguro, Arthur Miller, Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, Harry Mulisch (that's for Pugg) and hundreds of other authors read there.

Below is Schiff performing. I was in the 7th row on the left aisle.









Note - you can click on this to enlarge it, but how does one post large pictures?


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

Merl said:


> I miss the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. The sound was never perfect but it had a charm about it. Probably just nostalgia speaking and memories of seeing the Halle Orchestra there.


I always liked listening to the BBC Northern Symphony Orch.on Radio 3 when they played there. As far as I can hear, the Bridgwater Hall can't hold a candle to it for sound quality.

My nomination is Symphony Hall in Birmingham (UK). The combination of clarity and warmth in the acoustics there is just unreal.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Ingélou said:


> Most of the concerts I attend are held in old churches, as we follow an HIP ensemble, Norwich Baroque. The best acoustics (and sight lines) are found in the United Reformed Church in Princes Street, Norwich, and it is also the most comfortable of the usual church venues - though Norwich Cathedral is the most beautiful. I will never forget the concert of September 2015 when Rachel Podger played Bach from the pulpit, like a mellifluous :angel:.
> 
> We've been to Snape Maltings twice and the acoustics are good here, and the hall airy and comfortable, though the seats are simple fretwork jobs. Parking beforehand, and getting out afterwards, are both a bit of a palaver.


We go to a lot of local concerts that are in church halls. Enjoy them because they have a community atmosphere. They may not be as good as the main orchestras but they do their best and like to support them.
Being in church halls, they are lovely from a history point of view too!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Symphony Hall, Boston. Best acoustics in the USA.


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