Quote from
Pedja on 28 March 2025, 1:09 PM
Built on the old warehouse in what once was the port of Hamburg (and is still the Elbe river bank) and opened in 2017, Elbphilharmonie was predestined as one of the most noble acoustic places in the world. And my wish to see and hear this building and hall started about the same time. However, it had to wait for some years.
Finally, a few months ago I pulled the plug, firstly searching through the repertoire to book some good seats, as everything is sold out months in advance. As Christian Kempener, an audio fellow from Hamburg, told me once, audibility is excellent everywhere in the hall, however, space positioning might not be ideal at all places, and the overall sound picture may sum up to something he described as listening by the headphones with a certain mono effect. So, as we wanted to see and hear the hall in its full glory, sitting in front of the performers, we booked the event four months in advance, for Gaechinger Cantorey's performance of Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion. On the given date, at level 13, row 4, and very slightly right of center, we were face to face with 30 singers and 30 musicians, including two organs ("double choir" and "double orchestra", spaced symmetrically, with evangelist and one more cellist sitting in the middle).
Click on the picture will bring it 20 MP.
And this hall, simply, is the art of acoustics. It is designed by Yasuhisa Toyota, in the "vineyard style", which is of course not completely new, but here it is also rather uneven in its shape, with many diffusers (and probably partially absorbers) making the walls around, as well as the ceiling. My subjective impression is that there are not only non-linearities to talk about, but the space positioning and reverberation (tuned to 2.3 seconds for the occupied hall) are also excellent. Instruments and their locations remain clear whether they play solo or as a part of the orchestra, solo singers are easily audible, colors are nice and bright, and strings are open and mellow. And the large organ, across its bandwidth, has no unevenness to talk about. And, two double basses and three cellos may sound frightening in this hall for 2.100 visitors.
Regarding the reverberation time, it is indeed tuned to the upper limit (the ideal value for orchestra concert halls is usually considered anything between 1.7–2.3 seconds), and if I were forced to object about something, it would be a very tiny bit of blurring at the complete ensemble fortissimo moments. But you should take this really as a side notice – I did like the overall character, which is natural, correct, direct, effortless and appealing/seductive, and impressive, and I am not sure if something about it might be lost with shorter RT.
And the good feeling remained after more than three hours of performance. It did not get fatiguing, or boring, and we went outside very happy.
Speaking about Hamburg, apart from the Elbphilharmonie, it is an utterly interesting city, or rather something like several cities in one. Among the rest, we were fortunate enough to have Warhaus performing two days earlier in the famed Mojo Club, and it was also a terrific evening. Instead of talking about it, here is the link to the video (phone camera by me, edited by my wife).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3W5R68wbGE
Built on the old warehouse in what once was the port of Hamburg (and is still the Elbe river bank) and opened in 2017, Elbphilharmonie was predestined as one of the most noble acoustic places in the world. And my wish to see and hear this building and hall started about the same time. However, it had to wait for some years.
Finally, a few months ago I pulled the plug, firstly searching through the repertoire to book some good seats, as everything is sold out months in advance. As Christian Kempener, an audio fellow from Hamburg, told me once, audibility is excellent everywhere in the hall, however, space positioning might not be ideal at all places, and the overall sound picture may sum up to something he described as listening by the headphones with a certain mono effect. So, as we wanted to see and hear the hall in its full glory, sitting in front of the performers, we booked the event four months in advance, for Gaechinger Cantorey's performance of Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion. On the given date, at level 13, row 4, and very slightly right of center, we were face to face with 30 singers and 30 musicians, including two organs ("double choir" and "double orchestra", spaced symmetrically, with evangelist and one more cellist sitting in the middle).
Click on the picture will bring it 20 MP.
And this hall, simply, is the art of acoustics. It is designed by Yasuhisa Toyota, in the "vineyard style", which is of course not completely new, but here it is also rather uneven in its shape, with many diffusers (and probably partially absorbers) making the walls around, as well as the ceiling. My subjective impression is that there are not only non-linearities to talk about, but the space positioning and reverberation (tuned to 2.3 seconds for the occupied hall) are also excellent. Instruments and their locations remain clear whether they play solo or as a part of the orchestra, solo singers are easily audible, colors are nice and bright, and strings are open and mellow. And the large organ, across its bandwidth, has no unevenness to talk about. And, two double basses and three cellos may sound frightening in this hall for 2.100 visitors.
Regarding the reverberation time, it is indeed tuned to the upper limit (the ideal value for orchestra concert halls is usually considered anything between 1.7–2.3 seconds), and if I were forced to object about something, it would be a very tiny bit of blurring at the complete ensemble fortissimo moments. But you should take this really as a side notice – I did like the overall character, which is natural, correct, direct, effortless and appealing/seductive, and impressive, and I am not sure if something about it might be lost with shorter RT.
And the good feeling remained after more than three hours of performance. It did not get fatiguing, or boring, and we went outside very happy.
Speaking about Hamburg, apart from the Elbphilharmonie, it is an utterly interesting city, or rather something like several cities in one. Among the rest, we were fortunate enough to have Warhaus performing two days earlier in the famed Mojo Club, and it was also a terrific evening. Instead of talking about it, here is the link to the video (phone camera by me, edited by my wife).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3W5R68wbGE
