ecarroll

TMers,

MJ's "50 Strange Buildings" thread, which features my old house in Rotterdam at #9, has triggered thoughts about favorite concert buildings (concert-gebouwen, in Dutch, for you linguists out there).

Without question the five best acoustics that I've played in, and trust me when I say that I've played in most of the major halls in the world, are:

Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic “D. Shostokovich” (1500 seats)
Tchaikovsky Hall, Moscow Conservatory (1499 seats)
Großer Musikvereinssaal, Wien (1744 seats)
Het Concertgebouw, Amsterdam (1500 seats)
Symphony Hall, Boston (2625 seats)

The point of this thread, however, is to discuss our favorite marriages between architectural brilliance and acoustic, best exemplified for me by Frank Gehery's two brilliant halls in Los Angeles and at Bard College in the Hudson Valley:

http://www.digital-images.net/Images...yHall_0446.jpg

http://www.vraweb.org/chapters/upsta..._Center-10.jpg

I'm also fond of the Philharmonie in Berlin http://www.aac-berlin.de/luftbild/lu...charounstr.jpg , Birmingham's Symphony Hall http://www.acoustics.salford.ac.uk/a...birmingham.jpg , and the lovely CKS Concert Hall in Taipei http://www.asianet.fi/asianet/englis...l%20Taipei.jpg

Please take a moment to show us your favorites?

Best,
EC

TrentAustin

That hall in Taipei sounds great for acoustic music... It was hard to play a big band gig on the stage but the opening to Mahler #5 was fantastic!
:)

__________________
http://trentaustinmusic.com
Consultant, S.E. Shires Trumpets
Shires B59BLW "TA" model Bb trumpet
Adams Gold Brass Flugelhorn
Wedge Mouthpieces
PM me for an appointment to try a Shires!

Bloomin Untidy Musician

Birmingham ( England) Symphony hall has an excellent acoustic. It is almost CD quality in it's clarity. EC would you rate the Royal Albert Hall as one of the worst acoustics you have played in? I made my first pilgrimage to the proms this summer, and was absolutely stunned at how poor an acoustic the RAH has. It made me appreciate how bloomin amazing the BBC sound engineers are. Don't get me wrong, i love the atmosphere and sense of history at such a prestigious venue, but that acoustic was terrible for orchestral music. I stood about 6 meters from the orchestra and i struggled to hear the string and woodwind section. The bits i could hear had no sense of balance or clarity.
It was all brass and woodwind. My friends in the posh seats had a similar experience.

Cheers B.U.M.

Bloomin Untidy Musician

Sorry i just realised i contradicted myself. I meant the brass and percussion!

ecarroll

BUM,

Ali fought Frazier in Royal Albert Hall in 1971. This tells you all you need to know about that particular barn.

That said. I've only played one Prom concert there with Rotterdam (Shostokovich 5). I remember hearing decently on the stage and spotted Alfred Brendel in the audience -- how many places can you sat that about? :) I've never been out front and thus have missed Land of Hope and Glory.

Cheers,
EC

ps: another tidbit from this landmark in London. . . Gramophone Magazine used to have a critic who wrote under the pseudonym "R. Albert Hall". Cracks me up.

KJaeger

Great thread!

The Musikvereinsaal in Vienna and the Concertgebouw are my favorite of the traditional halls that you named. And I would love to hear a concert at the Disney Hall in LA.

I have performed in Foellinger Great Hall at the University of Illinois, which is probably the nicest acoustic I have ever performed in...




I have heard quite a few concerts at Davies Hall in San Francisco...




I am partial to showcasing the organ pipes

Meyerson (Dallas), Orchestra Hall (Minneapolis) and Kimmel Center (Philly) look impressive to me as well.

The new Schermerhorn hall in Nashville looks beautiful - saw the opening concert on PBS last year..

__________________
- Kevin Jaeger

Pikes Peak Philharmonic
Colorado Springs, CO

ecarroll

Kevin,

Regarding the new Schermerhorn Hall (which I've never seen), do you know that it's named after Kenneth Schermerhorn, the former maestro in Nashville but, more important to this forum, a former trumpet player? Mr. Schermerhorn, along with Saul Caston (former principal trumpet of the Philadelphia and NBC Orchestras), were Gerry Schwarz before Gerry was Gerry Schwarz.

Imagine one of us having a concert hall named after us? At best I'll get the mens room around the corner from C409 at McGill (the closest at CalArts is a 3 minute hike -- don't ask why I know that). The Carroll Crapper?

Best,
EC

ecarroll

Kevin,

Then you'll enjoy the organ over the stage at the Disney Hall http://www.chrisbryce.com/wp-content...rganFacade.jpg

The pipes were straight until a 6.5 temblor rocked the site (wack wack)

Best,
EC

KJaeger

Ed:

That's my favorite feature of Disney Hall! I have the opening night special that aired on PBS on my DVR, and it looked so cool when they would do the panoramic shots from the back of the darkened hall with the organ above the stage. That organ design is so creative.

I did not know about Kenneth Schermerhorn - it is only right that a trumpet player gets some props .

I would assume The Carroll Crapper features suspended panels from the ceiling to enhance the acoustics?

__________________
- Kevin Jaeger

Pikes Peak Philharmonic
Colorado Springs, CO

nickpasternack

my favorite is NJPAC in New Jersey. Its the biggest venue i have played, but i love how an orchestra sounds in that hall.



[IMG]file:///C:/Users/nick/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-2.jpg[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/Users/nick/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-3.jpg[/IMG]

__________________
Its not that i lack in intelligence, its that you lack in stupid.....

Schilke S42L 2005
1938 King cleveland
Bach Tr300(in process of heavily modding)
Conn circus bore cornet 1890 (restored)
J.W. pepper and son shepherds crook cornet 1895(ish)
Getzen Eterna Flugel