Is bigger better? (Part 2) Not necessarily for acoustics....

Part one of this examination of concert halls posed the original challenge:  Is bigger necessarily better?  How many of these halls might be noted for their acoustics?  Well......Kallie Szczepanski wrote of the following as our "best."  (Her complete commentary is found here.)

Boston Symphony Hall
Look at the shape...

1) Symphony Hall, Boston. The home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops was inaugurated in 1900, and is considered to be among the top three halls world-wide in terms of acoustics. Its tall, boxy shape, shallow balconies, and sound-boosting niches echo (and some say, exceed) the best halls of Europe: the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Vienna's Musikverein.

2) Carnegie Hall, New York City. Funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, this is probably the most famous concert hall in North America. Carnegie Hall officially opened in 1891, with a concert conducted in part by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. In the 1960s, the New York Philharmonic moved from Carnegie to the acoustically problematic new Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.

3) Metropolitan Opera House, New York City. The "New Met" is the second home of the New York Metropolitan Opera Company; it opened in Lincoln Center in 1966.

4) The Concert Hall at Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington D.C. (Hmmm.)

Schermerhorn Center
That shape is so familiar....

5) Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville, Tennessee. Opened in 2006, this new concert hall is designed in that familiar acoustics-boosting box shape.

6) Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis, Missouri. This 1925 building seats 2,689, and is home to the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.

7) Benaroya Hall, Seattle. The Seattle Symphony's new home was inaugurated in 1998, and spans an entire city block in down-town Seattle, Washington.

8) Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland, Oregon

9) Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco. Since a $10 million renovation in 1992, the Davies Symphony Hall has had superior acoustics to go along with its lovely dcor.

10) Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles. Saddled with a somewhat "Mickey Mouse" name, threatened with incompletion due to lack of funds, sued by neighbors whose condos were being cooked by sunlight reflecting from the metal shell, and mocked on a 2005 episode of "The Simpsons," the Walt Disney Concert Hall has seen its share of troubles since construction began in 1992. The Frank Gehry-designed hall finally opened in 2003, however, to near-universal praise for its acoustics. The beleaguered building seats 2,265 people, and houses both the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. The focal-point of the stage is an unusual organ, also designed by Gehry. Resembling a mangrove tree with many roots, the organ has been described somewhat unflatteringly as a "log-jam." It consists of 6,125 pipes, including the largest which is 32 feet long!

And what of the world's "great" halls, regardless of location?  Robert James offers this list of the 14 best (why 14?).  He leaves plenty of room for argument.

Carnegie:  The world’s greatest and most renowned artists come to perform here, and as such it represents a pinnacle of achievement.

The "golden hall" of the Musikverein

Musikverein, Vienna (1744 seats): (Acoustically speaking) Back in 1870 architects didn’t have a whole lot to go on. They guessed, with the result that concert halls were designed and constructed based on not much more than intuition. Luckily, (Danish architect Theophil) Hansen’s sense of acoustics was more of a hit than most, which is why the Great Hall, as it’s known today, is recognized as one of the greatest concert halls ever built.

Walt Disney Hall (this one keeps showing up!)

Royal Albert Hall, London (nearly 6,000 seats):  Really?  The Kensington Gardens venue is perhaps best known for the Proms, the world’s biggest classical music concerts featuring the best artists in the world performing some of the most amazing music in the world for some of the most reasonable, some might even say cheapest, prices in the world.  Cheap and big make for greatness?

Madison Square Garden, New York.  Seriously?  They should have left the old Pennsylvania Station, an architectural wonder in itself instead of stacking an area on top of the underground railway lines.

Concertgebouw.  That darned rectangle keeps showing up!

Concertgebouw, Amsterdam:  A reverberation time of 2.2 seconds with audience intact make the Concertgebouw – literal translation: “concert building” – one of the world’s great concert halls. Without going into any detail here, because it’s a dull subject – 2.2 seconds is a very good number if you’re a concert hall.

Symphony Hall, Boston:  Built for the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1900, Boston’s Symphony Hall was designated a US National Historic Landmark in 1999. Acoustically, it is considered the finest in the US, and among the top handful of concert halls in the world.

The Helix, Dublin (never heard of it):  Everything from opera to rock concerts to ice shows. Sinead O’Connor has played here, along with Van Morrison and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, although none of them, so far as we know, at the same time. Roddy Doyle’s “The Woman Who Walked Into Doors” was also performed at the Helix, and the Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra and The St. Petersburg Ballet have also performed at the venue. In 2003 it was awarded the Opus Building of the Year Award.

Vienna State Opera:  The Vienna State Opera is excellent bang for your buck in that it is both an opera house and an opera company. More than that, the members of the Vienna Philharmonic are recruited from its orchestra. This is definitely something to tweet home about, as The Vienna Philharmonic is widely recognized as the top of the orchestral world, possibly the tippy top depending who you’re talking to.

Radio City Music Hall, New York.  It is home to the mightiest of Wurlitzer's, with, not one, but two consoles.

Berlin Philharmonie

Berlin Philharmonie:  The home of the Berlin Philharmonic is acclaimed both for its acoustics and architecture. It was completed in 1963, and has two venues, the main hall which seats 2,440, and a chamber music hall seating 1,180 that was added later.

National Center for the Performing Arts, Beijing:  It’s a modernist look caught up in the triangle of Tiananmen Square, the Great Hall of The People, and the Forbidden City. The youthful appearance mixed in with places and architecture of such historical significance caused some controversy at the time. The building is a glass dome with titanium accents, the sort of look your hairdresser might go for after a bad trip. It looks like a beached whale, or as others have said like an egg floating on water, which if that’s the case better keep an eye open for whatever laid it.

Berlin Konzerthaus:  (Inaugurated in 1821) The theater was damaged during the Second World War, and only reopened in 1984, which is when it became a concert hall. Today it is considered one of the world’s great concert halls, on an acoustic par with Boston’s Symphony Hall and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

Sydney Opera House:  The House is designed with seven performance venues of varying sizes, the largest being the Concert Hall, which holds about 2,500 people. According to John Malkovich, the acoustics at The House make it impossible to stage anything except a circus.  (So that makes it great?)