Michael Lynch, chief executive of the South Bank Centre, has unveiled plans for the refurbishment of the Royal Festival Hall’s auditorium which will put an end to its reputation for having notoriously bad acoustics.
Announcing the acoustic-enhancing renovations yesterday – part of the £90m transformation of the Royal Festival Hall and its surroundings – Lynch said: “The Royal Festival Hall is a wonderful musical venue, popular with musicians and audiences, but its acoustics for classical music leave room for improvement.
“The acoustic aspirations of its original designers were never fully realised, but now we have the opportunity to complete the job with the benefit of 21st century technology.”
The modifications are to be carried out by renowned acoustician, Larry Kirkegaard of Chicago-based Kirkegaard Associates and will not only create better acoustics for classical music but also introduce facilities to accommodate performances of other sorts of music.
Kirkegaard said: “Audiences in Royal Festival Hall have enjoyed great music performed by the world’s most accomplished musicians, but most listeners have been unaware that musicians were struggling to make music in its profoundly unsupportive acoustic.
“London’s audiences have not experienced the quality of performances that are possible in the world’s great concert halls.”
Alterations in the 2,900-seat auditorium will include stiffening wall and ceiling surfaces to reduce bass absorption and achieve longer reverberation and greater envelopment, while background noise will be reduced to near silent levels.
The greatest change however will be the introduction of an over-stage canopy designed to reflect just the right amount of sound directly to both players and listeners.
A further part of the project will see three rows of seats removed to create greater leg room for audiences.
The main work on the Grade I listed building’s auditorium and foyers will begin in July next year and the hall will reopen in January 2007.
The scheme has received £25m from Arts Council England Lottery funds and £19m from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Around £9m has been raised from trusts and private donors and a further £19m raised from the London Development Agency, the Waterloo Project Board, the Cross River Partnership and other commercial sources. Details: www.rfh.org.uk
