OUR VENUES

The Best Place to Hear.

Comprising two of the finest acoustic spaces in the southern hemisphere, carefully crafted to present the best music the world has to offer, Melbourne Recital Centre is a world-class facility for the performance, recording and broadcasting of music. The Centre’s musically rich spaces aspire to the calibre of landmark halls such as Vienna’s Musikverein and London’s Wigmore Hall, while existing in the digital era, a brilliant marriage of the classical and the progressive.

Drawing fundamental influence from the traditional box shape of European concert halls, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall is lined with striking plywood panels of Australian plantation Hoop Pine timber, designed to resemble the back of a beautiful instrument and provide greater acoustic intimacy across the 1000-seat auditorium. Featuring a raked stalls level, circle, distinctive split-level balconies and a stepped-platform ceiling at 6m, 9.5m and 13m intervals, the platform acoustics enrich the strength, clarity and blending of instruments as well as the delicate communication between ensemble players on stage, with a mid frequency reverberation time of 1.6–1.8 seconds.

The superbly organic acoustics of the hall extend to the Salon, a uniquely intimate 150-seat space that can also act as a companion room to the hall. Comprising a series of diffusing timber panels with tessellated plywood faces tipped in and out to form a modulated wall and ceiling, Percy Grainger’s 1937 graphic score, Free Music No. 2 is inscribed across the surface to inspire players and audiences alike.

Music is central to all our lives. Visit us at Melbourne Recital Centre and experience one of the finest live music venues in the world.