There’s no objective way to determine the best acoustics for concert halls, though most people agree on the basics..
Acoustic consultants now playing a central role in any new concert venue design.
"With the objective criteria of today, one can safely plan for a hall that would be somewhere on the scale from good to excellent." "Another way of putting it is, we are able to explain 70-80% of the average listener's preference by the physical and acoustical properties of the hall."
For now, the only effective way to rank concert halls acoustics is subjective - is it dazzling or is the sound perfectly designed?
One notable trend is that the highest-rated concert halls were built before 1901 and were built like a rectangular or shoebox shape and lightly upholstered seats. Many newer halls today sacrifice sound quality for visual design, size, and comfort.
"Architects are reluctant to design shoebox shapes because they show no originality," "So the new designs are like the recently opened Philharmonie de Paris. There are some excellent seats, but because the audience is seated everywhere, front, behind, to the sides and above the stage, the acoustics sound different everywhere and in some places are unsatisfactory to me."
Regardless of the critics, here are some of the greatest and most popular as well as musically spectacular in their music presentations.
On your form, be sure to include the location on the map as well as listed in the title and write down a few interesting facts about that particular concert hall.
Grosser Musikvereinssaal - Vienna, Austria Symphony Hall - Boston, USA Concertgebouw - Amsterdam, Netherlands Konzerthaus - Berlin, Germany Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall - Tokyo Japan Stadtcasino - Basel, Switzerland Symphony Hall - Birmingham, England Culture and Congress Centre (KKL) - Lucerne, Switzerland St. David's Hall - Cardiff, Wales Meyerson Center - Dallas, Texas Paris Philharmonie - Paris, France The Helix - Dublin, Ireland Royal Albert Hall - London, England Walt Disney Concert Hall - Los Angeles, California Carnegie Hall - New York City, USA Sydney Opera House - Sydney, Australia Harbin Opera House - Harbin, China Palau de la Musica Catalana - Barcelona, Spain Palais Garnier Opera House - Paris, France Oslo Opera House - Oslo, Norway Hungarian State Opera - Budapest, Hungary The Egg - Albany, New York Heydar Aliyev Center - Azerbaijan, Republic of Azerbaijan Teatro La Fenice - Venice, Italy Bridgewater Hall - Manchester, UK Berlin Philharmonie - Berlin, Germany Christchurch Town Hall Auditorium - Christchurch, New Zealand Sibelius Hall - Lahti, Finland Sala - Sao Paulo, Brazil