Overseen by the acoustics team from leading design and consulting firm Arup, the test concert was a major milestone in the development of the Melbourne Recital Centre.
The outcome from all associated with the design is the view that the new performance space will set an international benchmark for future acoustic design. The designers were originally aiming to emulate the quality of two other great performance spaces, the Grosser Musikvereinsaal in Vienna and London’s Wigmore Hall so their response is great praise indeed.
Arup’s design is the archetypal shoebox-shaped concert hall, but geometry sculpted into the space has embellished amazing acoustic intimacy, in addition to improving the sightlines from all seats. The interior of the 1000-seat hall is clad in Australian hoop pine with pixelated surfaces that diffuse sound, enhance the timbre of the instruments and creating a profound harmony and clarity of sound. The stepped ceiling above the performance platform plays a central role providing strong acoustic reflections, which will improve the musicians’ ability to hear themselves and facilitate greater musical ensemble.
Members of the test concert audience commented on the ‘quietness’ in the room during silent passages and the great musical detail that was revealed. The outcome is that the audience is subject to an exceptionally broad dynamic range from pianissimo to fortissimo, as well as great warmth, clarity and intimacy of the sound.
“The hall sounds very, very good. Nothing goes near this quality of sound anywhere else in Australia,” said Arup’s project director, Andrew Nicol. “The silence we have achieved in the space is quite literally arresting. The clarity of the acoustic will also demand great skill from the musicians performing there, driving them towards perfection and pure revelry in their music.”
Arup’s international auditorium designer Dr Raf Orlowski, who commuted regularly from Cambridge in the UK to work on the project, believes the overall design and intimacy of the hall will be relished by the world’s leading musicians who will make it their goal to play in the space. “Working with the architects the two teams have together delivered a building that creates a sense of enclosing and nurturing the musicians. The result is simply the best sound I have heard in a recital hall of this size anywhere in the world".
The acoustic design was validated by Arup’s unique SoundLab facility. The SoundLab transposes the architect’s 3D computer models into 3D acoustic models throughout the design process enabling the acousticians to listen to what the hall would sound like, and then to refine both the geometry and diffusion characteristics at each iteration of the design.
The Melbourne Recital Centre is the result of an extraordinary collaboration spanning five years between Arup, Bovis Lend Lease, Major Projects Victoria and architect Ashton Raggatt McDougall.
“The sound really was beautiful,” said Arup project manager Sylvia Jones. “The concert marked a brilliant episode in the design phase of the centre and was a moment of celebration for everyone involved.”