Here are the best sounding concert halls in the world:
Musikverein, Vienna, Austria
Capacity: 1,744 seats
“This certainly is the finest hall in the world, “the superior acoustics of the hall are due to its rectangular shape, its relatively small size, its high ceiling with resulting long reverberation time, the irregular interior surfaces, and the plaster interior,” world-famous conductor Bruno Walter explains in [easyazon_link identifier=”0387955240″ locale=”US” tag=”keytarhq04-20″ cart=”n”]”Concert Halls and Opera Houses”[/easyazon_link].
Symphony Hall, Boston, USA
Capacity: 2,625 seats. Shoebox design
“Even the first time that I conducted there, I was struck by its acoustics. It is the most noble of American concert halls,” Bruno Walter
Harvard Professor Wallace Clement Sabine introducing new techniques to increase reverberation time.
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Capacity: 1,974 seats. Shoebox design
Konzerthaus Berlin, Germany
Capacity: 1,600 seats. Shoebox shaped hall
Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, Japan
Capacity: 1,632 seats. Shoebox shaped hall
Stadtcasino Basel, Switzerland
Capacity: 1,500 seats. Shoebox shaped hall
Symphony Hall, Birmingham, England
Capacity: 2,262 seats. Shoebox (slight variant) shaped hall
Culture and Congress Centre (KKL), Lucerne, Switzerland
Capacity: 1,840 seats. Shoebox design
St. David’s Hall, Cardiff, Wales
Capacity: 2,000 seats. Surround hall
Royal Albert Hall, London
Capacity: 5,272 seat
Meyerson Center, Dallas, USA
Capacity: 2,062 seats. Variant on shoebox design.
More here: businessinsider.
Music Played in ‘Shoe-Box’ Shaped Concert Hall’s Create Maximum Emotional Impact
There are several concert halls around the world, and some of them are considered to be among the best, in terms of their size, seating capacities and their design.
While most of us assume that these concert halls are designed for maximum acoustic impact on the audience, it may not necessarily be true. Some of the concert halls could very well have given more importance to the architecture than to the acoustics.
A recent scientific study suggests that music played/performed in ‘Shoe-box shaped’ concert halls create the maximum emotional impact (rules out star venues like the Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall and the Barbican.)
The rectangular design of concert halls such as Vienna Musikverein or Berlin Konzerthaus, are most likely to produce sounds that make the hairs on the back of the audience’s neck stand up.
The actual experiment was carried out using a surround loudspeaker system in a listening room reproduced to mimic rectangular, or non-rectangular, concert halls of six European venues including Vienna Musikverein, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Konzerhaus and Philharmonie, Cologne Philharmonie and Helsinki Music Centre.
During listening, the skin was measured with sensors attached in the listeners’ fingers in order to record the magnitude of the emotional reactions to different acoustic conditions. The results revealed an identical performance of the music evoked stronger impact when presented in the acoustics of shoebox type concert halls, such as Vienna Musikverein or Berlin Konzerthaus.
In a second, more conventional experiment, the participants were asked to choose the the halls that produced a higher overall impact on them, with Vienna Musikverein easily coming out ahead followed by Berlin Konzerthaus.
Source: telegraph.co.uk
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