City Recital Hall in Sydney, Australia, is a purpose-built concert venue with the capacity for an audience of 1,238 people seated over three tiers of sloped seating. It is situated in the

city centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

in Angel Place, just off

Martin Place Martin Place is a pedestrian mall in the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. Martin Place has been described as the "civic heart" of Sydney.

. City Recital Hall, opened in 1999, is the first specially designed concert venue to be built in the city since the

Opera House An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets. While some venues are constructed specifically fo ...

in 1973. The role of City Recital Hall is to provide a high quality venue of international standing. The venue was initiated by the

City of Sydney The City of Sydney is the local government area covering the Sydney central business district and surrounding inner city suburbs of the greater metropolitan area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established by Act of Parliament in 1842, th ...

and was specifically designed for solo recitals,

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small nu ...

and the spoken word. The auditorium's 1.8-second

reverberation Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abso ...

time is attuned for chamber music. The spoken word and amplified music are accommodated by the operation of specially designed acoustic banners. The entire auditorium is supported on rubber bearings to avoid vibration and street sounds and the air conditioning and lighting systems have been treated to minimise external noise. The Hall was designed in a shoebox shape, based on the classical configuration of 19th-century European concert halls. The design includes gently sloping stalls and two galleries that wrap around both sides and rear of the auditorium. The décor is of grey,

gold leaf Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...

, light timber panelling and plum-coloured upholstery. The main grand stairway is of white marble. City Recital Hall has hosted the following companies: *

Australian Brandenburg Orchestra The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra (ABO) is an Australian period instrument orchestra specialising in the performance of baroque and classical music. Founders The orchestra's founder and artistic director is Paul Dyer. In 2013 Dyer was a ...

Australian Chamber Orchestra The Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) was founded by cellist John Painter in 1975.Verghis, Sharon"Bach with more bite pays off" ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 2 September 2005. Richard Tognetti was appointed Lead Violin in 1989 and subsequently appo ...

Australian String Quartet The Australian String Quartet (ASQ) is a chamber music group founded in 1985 and based at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. It delivers an artistic program of performances, workshops, commissions, digital content and education projects ...

Gondwana Voices Gondwana Choirs is an Australian national choral organisation. It was founded in 1989 as Sydney Children’s Choir by Lyn Williams AM, who is its artistic director. The choirs' rehearsal studios are located at the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct in D ...

Musica Viva Australia Musica Viva was founded in 1945 by Romanian-born violinist Richard Goldner, with the aim of bringing chamber music to Australia. The co-founder was a German-born musicologist, Walter Dullo. At its inception, Musica Viva was a string ensemble per ...

Pinchgut Opera Pinchgut Opera is a chamber opera company in Sydney, Australia, presenting opera from the 17th and 18th centuries performed on period instruments. Founded in 2002, Pinchgut stages two operas each year in Sydney's City Recital Hall. It also perfo ...

* Selby & Friends * Sydney Children's Choir *

Sydney Festival Sydney Festival is a major arts festival in Australia's largest city, Sydney that runs for three weeks every January, since it was established in 1977. The festival program features in excess of 100 events from local and international artists an ...

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Sydney Philharmonia Choirs is Australia’s largest choral organisation. It presents its own annual concert series in the Sydney Opera House the City Recital Hall, and other venues in New South Wales, as well as serving as chorus for the Sydney ...

Sydney Symphony The Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra that was initially formed in 1908. Since its opening in 1973, the Sydney Opera House has been its home concert hall. Simone Young is the orchestra's chief conductor and fir ...

* Sydney Writers Festival

External links

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Official City Recital Hall websiteReview of the new book "Musical Chairs: The Quest for a City Recital Hall"
Concert halls in Australia Theatres in Sydney Music venues completed in 1999 Music venues in Sydney 1999 establishments in Australia

See also

Further reading

External links