Ten Best Concert Halls in the World
Guys, I have to mention that it was very hard for us to choose only ten best concert halls in the world because they all have some features that make them unique.
There are still many concert halls that many of you consider to be the best, so why not submit to us your favorite?
We came up with this idea after the most expensive concert tickets. We thought that we should definitely make a list where we talk about the most amazing places where you can listen to music.
And we came up with these 10 best concert halls in the world. I can’t decide which one I love better, but until the end of the list, I will make up my mind.
So, guys, these are the ten best concert halls in the world!
10- Romanian Athenaeum, Bucharest
Let’s meet the tenth concert hall! It comes from Romania and it is called the Romanian Athenaeum (Ateneul Român).
The concert hall, which was opened in 1888, is located in the center of Bucharest. The ornate, domed, circular building is a landmark of the Romanian capital city.
It is the city’s main concert hall and home of “George Enescu” Philharmonic and of George Enescu annual international music festival.
Founded in 1865 by the cultural and scientific personalities Constantin Esarcu, V.A. Urechia and Nicolae Cre?ulescu, this concert hall is one of the best in the world.
Designed by the French architect Albert Galleron, the hall is built on a property that had belonged to the the V?c?rescu family.
The design and location makes this concert hall one of the best in Romania, don’t you think?
9- Boston Symphony Hall, US
The next in the list is Boston Symphony Hall from United States. This concert hall has a unique shoebox shaped which was inspired by the old Gewandhaus in Leipzig.
Copying features of an old hall doesn’t ensure a great venue which is where science became an essential part of the concert hall design.
The acoustics of the hall is the heart of the city which makes the Symphony Hall is considered by many to be one of the finest concert halls in the world.
Completed in 1900, the auditorium is still considered to be one of the top venues for classical music in the world and the first concert hall ever built on scientifically derived acoustical engineering.
8- Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, UK
The Bridgewater Hall held its first performance in September 1996 and now has three resident orchestras: the Hallé, the BBC Philharmonic and Manchester Camerata.
Did you know that the new concert halls are almost silent giving the opportunity to the musicians to draw their listeners in with incredibly quiet playing?
The breathing and fidgeting of the audience actually creates more sound than other background noises. Only in intense moments where the audiences collectively hold its breath, can this deep silence be heard.
On 15 June 1996, an IRA bomb broke virtually every window in the city center. The hall was so well isolated that construction workers inside the auditorium did not hear the explosion.
7- Grosser Musikvereinssaal, Vienna, Austria
Often referred as the best concert hall in the world, the Musikverein, on Vienna’s Ringstrasse is ranked seventh on our list.
The auditorium is home to the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, with past famous conductors including Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler.
When the Philharmonic plays a sweeping crescendo, it is as though the hall springs into life.
At its quietest the music seems to be coming from the stage, but as notes get louder the whole orchestra appears to physically broaden, and you perceive a tsunami of sound that washes over you from all directions.
The Musikverein’s beautifully ornate auditorium combined with its exquisite sound truly makes this a world class concert hall.
6- Berlin Philharmonie, Germany
Opened in 1963, the Philharmonie is noted for its distinctive tent-like exterior. Developed by architect Hans Scharoun, the hall is one of the best concert halls in the world.
Hans’ socialist views and a combination of skill and accident revealed a new way forward for architectural market: vineyard terracing.
By breaking the audience into blocks, the intervening walls can be used to reflect more sound to the audience from the sides.
Scharoun noted that “people always gather in circles when listening to music informally”, and this inspired the radical concept of music in the round.
About a third of the audience is behind the orchestra. The rear seats have great views, but some find the orchestral balance odd.
5- Christchurch Town Hall Auditorium, New Zealand
After developed the acoustics of this hall, Harold Marshall elaborated a theory that says that good auditorium needs sound to be reflected from the walls and to reach the listener’s head from the side.
The music in the two ears is then subtly different, as it takes longer for the sound to reach the ear furthest away.
His theory resulted in this revolutionary design, where vast, wooden panels form a giant tepee above the audience.
Town Hall is being repaired, following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, which caused widespread destruction in the city, and is then expected to form part of a new performing arts precinct that authorities are hoping to open in 2018.
We can’t wait to see the concert hall reopened.
4- Philharmonie de Paris, France
This time the Philharmonie is located in Paris, France. The walls and balconies of the concert hall form sweeping curves.
From the ceiling of the room are hang clouds of panels looking like they have been cut out from giant planks of wood.
The curves are not just strokes of the architect’s pen to create visual beauty, they are just a detail. Every surface is carefully shaped to provide enhancing sound reflections for the audience.
The Philharmonie is not a facsimile of an old venerated hall, but an auditorium of its time, one that could only be built now by exploiting modern acoustic engineering.
3- Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles
The Walt Disney Concert Hall is located in Los Angeles at 111 South Grand Avenue. It is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center.
This hall was designed by Frank Gehry and it had its big opening in 2003.
Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Avenue, and 1st and 2nd Streets, it seats 2,265 people and serves, among other purposes, as the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
The hall is in a vineyard seating configuration, similar to the Berliner Philharmonie by Hans Scharoun.
Lillian Disney made an initial gift of $50 million in 1987 to build a performance venue as a gift to the people of Los Angeles and a tribute to Walt Disney’s devotion to the arts and to the city.
2- Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, Japan
The Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall appears to be a conventional rectangular hall if you take a moment and look down from a balcony.
If you look up, the ceiling forms a giant distorted pyramid covered in complex wooden grooves.
The hall shape recalls the well-regarded Maltings Concert Hall in Snape, England.
Auditoriums of this shape are actually quite rare, but can have excellent acoustics.
At the opening night in Tokyo, celebrated cellist Yo-Yo Ma commented: “This hall simply has some of the best acoustics in which I have ever had the privilege to play.”
The Tokyo Opera City is one of the best concert halls in the world!
1- Sala São Paulo, Brazil
This concert hall was one of the things needed in the 1990s. When the hall needed a new venue for its São Paolo Symphony Orchestra, they choose what might at first, seem an unlikely space, went with an open-air waiting area by a railway station.
The piazza had just the right proportions, the width was the same as Boston Symphony Hall and the length and height matched the Grosser Musikverein in Vienna.
Concertgoers can still admire the giant columns from the original plaza, as well as the giant moveable ceiling that helps change the acoustics depending on whether the orchestra is performing baroque or romantic music.
That is pretty cool, isn’t it?
What do you think? Would you like to listen to a symphony in one of these concert halls?
