NEW CONCERT HALL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 71, Issue 37, 23 November 1950, Page 7

NEW CONCERT HALL

PROVISION IN LONDON London is to have a new concert hall. Ever since the Queen’s Hall was destroyed by a bomb in 1941, the Royal Albert Hall has been the chief centre for musical concerts. This building, from which so many BBC concerts have been broadcast, has been condemned by many as an architectural monstrosity and acknowledged by all to be acoustically unsound.

The new concert hall is now being built on the site of the 1951 Festival of Britain Exhibition oil the south bank of the River Thames and some of Britain’s best architects and scientists are engaged on it. Their object is to provide t\yo halls: one, a large hall to be used particularly for concerts by orchestras and choirs; the other, a small hall for chamber music and recitals. Then there are to be refreshment bars, a restaurant, meeting rooms, an exhibition gallery and accommodation for the artists. For the musicians there are to be changing rooms, and a rehearsal room. Gardens and lawns have been lain out leading directly from the river and the foyer of the Concert Hall is an extension of these. The restaurant is on the river front of this foyer, the main concert hall over the foyer and the small concert hall below it. From the foyer level, four main stairways give access to side galleries, which lead into the main concert hall itself. To prevent any external noise from coming into the auditorium, the walls, roof and floor of the new concert hall are being surrounded with two heavy leaves of concrete with an air space between.

Then there is the question of acoustics. The aim is good musical tone, that is good definition and singing tone. Good definition is achieved by having free, direct sound paths from every instrument of the orchestra to every seat in the audience and the test is how many instruments can be seen. In the Royal Festival Hall the audience will sit on one slope facing the orchestra, which is also seated on a slope and between these will be a polished reflecting surface like the orchestra floor of a Greek theatre. It is hoped that by an adjustment of the space between the panelling on the walls and by drilling out wooden plugs which have been specially provided in considerable numbers in the ceiling, it will be possible to alter the hall acoustically in between concerts. All these and many points are still being worked out and the result promises to be a happy one for musicians and public alike.