Concert halls from around the world. What have been your favorites.


I have been to the best ones in NYC and many other cities in the US and Europe.  Fisher and many others come to mind... But I am interested in your experiences. 

All of the best live performances of music at all of the great halls, the music was on stage in front of me, Left to Right with natural front to back based on the stage and arrangements of players.

I have never been to a great live performance where there were player to my sides or behind.  Hence my interest in Stereo and not 5:1, 7:1, 467:1 et. al. 

But if you enjoy movies where the dinosaur or something is attacking from the sides or back...well...

I am still of the thought that the "Absolute Sound" is great live music in a great building.  But I also like real, fresh and natural foods vs. processed, max corn sweetener foods....

whatjd
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This is an old thread, but I will add my grain of salt (or two):

Every hall on earth will have trouble, or deaf, spots, as well as sweet spots. The great auditoria will have a lower percentage of total seats within the former.

After a lifetime of sitting in live concerts all over the US as well as in Europe, these are my choices. I tend to revisit halls always looking for a different acoustic vantage point, so I buy seats at different locations.

Here, I'll divide the acoustic sensations, within the halls with which I'm most familiar, between romantic halls and modern halls... the former have a "boomier" reverberance, enrobing the orchestral sound; the latter have a more transparent, less coloured, clearer, often very present sound. I like both sensations with romantic music whereas I would always choose the latter for modern and contemporary pieces, as well as baroque pieces with busy poliphony (these get messy in "boomier" halls).

Romantic-sounding halls: Berlin Konzerthaus (not the Philharmonie), Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw, Boston's Symphony Hall, New York's Carnegie Hall (I know it has trouble spots, like all halls do, but the vastness of the place makes it very easy to avoid those to end up in acoustic heaven), Tokyo's Opera City Concert Hall (the latest one is the newest of the bunch, a late-20th-Century hall with a 19th Century sound; alas, not ideal for very large orchestral pieces due to space and--I suspect--a probable tendency to oversaturate), Sala São Paulo in São Paulo (in the transformed inner courtyard of a repurposed train station). I've also heard good things about the Schermerhorn Symphony Hall, in Nashville. However, I never attended a concert there. My experiences at the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein have been so variable over several concerts (some great!), that I do not know what to think about it. Although I (like everybody else) want to love this grand and historic hall, I do not dare rate it here. To my honest ears, however, it has always seemed a mark or two below the hallowed hype that accompanies it, at least from the seats I have been able to afford. I am told at its sweet spots, the sound is beyond compare.

Modern-sounding halls: Lucerne's KKL Concert Hall (although its sound is what I would call semi-romantic, close to Opera City in Tokyo, I list it here, because, paradoxically, it also has great clarity; it is one of my favorite concert halls!), Philharmonie de Paris, Dallas' Meyerson Hall, New York's David Geffen Hall (post-2022 only), Tokyo's superb Suntory Hall (what I said above, about KKL in Lucerne, applies to this wonderful hall as well), La Maison Symphonique de Montreal. I am still trying to figure out Disney Hall in Los Angeles. Alas, I don't find myself there that often. However, I mention it, because many people whose opinion I respect think it is wonderful.


I agree with Palasr, about Smetana Hall... Wonderful sound, and atmosphere. I just don't have enough experience (only one concert) to figure in which category it belongs.

My opera houses of choice, if acoustics were the only consideration, would be easy to choose: Buenos Aires' Teatro Colón, New York's Metropolitan Opera, London's Royal Opera House, Venice's La Fenice, and Naples' Teatro San Carlo. I've never attended performances at the Massimo, in Palermo, brought into the conversation also by Palasr.

Winterland (alas, long gone) - San Francisco

The Fillmore - San Francisco

Great American Music Hall - San Francisco