# New concert hall



## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

The last couple of paragraphs are the ones that concern me...and everyone else over here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/29/arts/international/philharmonie-de-paris-prepares-to-open-amid-controversy.html?_r=0


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

It's not so easy (at least no longer) to build new concert halls having bad acoustics, but of course the key sentence is:

_But you never really know until an orchestra is there to try things out_

Mr. Toyota? Then it's going to be an acceptable and "reliable" concert hall...


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I was living in NYC when Lincoln Center was being built. They employed the greatest acousticians and designers. No expense was spared. The end result was Philharmonic Hall turned out to be an acoustical disaster. Players couldn't hear each other and the consensus was the sound from the stage to the seats was awful.
Doesn't matter how many great minds are working on the project. What works on paper doesn't necessarily transfer as a successful project in practice.


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## Radames (Feb 27, 2013)

hpowders said:


> I was living in NYC when Lincoln Center was being built. They employed the greatest acousticians and designers. No expense was spared. The end result was Philharmonic Hall turned out to be an acoustical disaster. Players couldn't hear each other and the consensus was the sound from the stage to the seats was awful.
> Doesn't matter how many great minds are working on the project. What works on paper doesn't necessarily transfer as a successful project in practice.


With 3D printing technology it should be easy to just scan in Boston's Symphony Hall and print it out. Shouldn't it?


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Well, we don't want another Opera Bastille. 6 years to build. 20 years to fix.

This part sounds awesome and frightening in equal measures. That's a lot of variables.
_The new hall will also feature modular seating that can be reconfigured in function of the artists or the works being presented. For example, if a concert features a singer, the stage can be positioned so that it is adjacent to a wall, thereby eliminating seats that would give a view of the singer's back._


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

No matter the math, the acoustic science, all the applied design, materials chosen, the engineering of it all, and it seems with no more surety then when all that did not exist, everyone involved in the making of a hall, the performers, and the audience, all still have good cause to worry until it is finished and then tested out.

Until that moment, I'm sure everyone is proverbially holding their collective breath, and praying to Apollo and Erato, etc. for a good outcome. 

May it be a stellar hall for Paris, and the performers and audiences.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

PetrB said:


> No matter the math, the acoustic science, all the applied design, materials chosen, the engineering of it all, and it seems with no more surety then when all that did not exist, everyone involved in the making of a hall, the performers, and the audience, all still have good cause to worry until it is finished and then tested out.
> 
> Until that moment, I'm sure everyone is proverbially holding their collective breath, and praying to Apollo and Erato, etc. for a good outcome.
> 
> May it be a stellar hall for Paris, and the performers and audiences.


I hear the head acoustician already got new shoes for the grand opening with supports engraved Arches de Triomphe.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

hpowders said:


> I hear the head acoustician already got new shoes for the grand opening with supports engraved Arches de Triomphe.


Yes, and they an have audio chip controlled by a remote he carries in his pocket. He has two song options, which he will use if anyone steps on his toes at _Le Grand bal_ opening night celebratory after party: at a flic of a button they will play either _La Marseillaise_, or _Blue Suede Shoes..._ (I know. I sold them to him)... so very French, non?


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## Aaconn (Oct 22, 2014)

Why does it seem as though the halls built with the help of acoustic specialists turn out terrible yet those designed before the modern day science of it such as Vienna, Boston, etc. have such great acoustics?


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## papsrus (Oct 7, 2014)

hpowders said:


> I was living in NYC when Lincoln Center was being built. They employed the greatest acousticians and designers. No expense was spared. The end result was Philharmonic Hall turned out to be an acoustical disaster. Players couldn't hear each other and the consensus was the sound from the stage to the seats was awful.
> Doesn't matter how many great minds are working on the project. What works on paper doesn't necessarily transfer as a successful project in practice.


Under political pressure from the local newspapers (Herald, I think) to make the hall bigger, the original design was altered to accommodate more seating, compromising whatever the intentions of acousticians were. Politics, not acoustic design, were what doomed Philharmonic Hall, as I understand things. Cyril Harris' renovations in the 1970s were said to offer some improvement, but not having experienced the venue myself, I'm relying on others here.



Aaconn said:


> Why does it seem as though the halls built with the help of acoustic specialists turn out terrible yet those designed before the modern day science of it such as Vienna, Boston, etc. have such great acoustics?


I'm not an expert by any means, but have by happenstance been doing some reading on this subject and it is apparently not universally the case that all modern halls are acoustically deficient. The Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA is said to be excellent (again, going from my readings on the subject, not personal experience). And while some other modern venues have apparently been problematic at their opening (Kimmel Center in Philly, for example), additional modern acoustic technologies applied after completion of the halls have often improved the acoustics in these facilities to a high level.

The above-mentioned Avery Fisher Hall (formerly Philharmonic Hall) is a bit of an outlier, it seems. And again, the problems with the facility seem to have been that its original design was altered (over the objections of the acoustician(s), I believe) to appease political pressure to expand the facility.

I do hope the new Paris hall is a grand success.


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## SiegendesLicht (Mar 4, 2012)

papsrus said:


> I do hope the new Paris hall is a grand success.


This old thread I have just dug up proved to be an enlightening reading. Apparently we Hamburgers were not the only ones with a big concert hall debacle resently. And that Toyota guy was involved in both projects - in Hamburg and in Paris.

So how did it actually turn out? The inside of the concert hall surely does look impressive.


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