Moscow State Conservatory: Rachmaninov Hall

One of the sights of Moscow, striking beautiful architecture from the outside, rich interior decoration and emotional impact of excellent acoustics is the oldest concert hall that the Moscow Conservatory - the Rachmaninov Hall has. It will be discussed later.

Moscow Conservatory: Rachmaninov Hall - the history of construction

The building, of which the Rachmaninov Hall is a part, was built in 1890 to house the Synodal Singing School there.

In 1968, the Moscow Conservatory Rachmaninov Hall included in its structure, reconstruction works were carried out for a long time, and only in 1983 the incredible beauty of the hall opened with a concert by the famous Svyatoslav Richter. Three years later, he was named after Sergei Rakhmaninov, a brilliant composer, pianist, graduate of the same conservatory.

Many concerts of chamber, symphony orchestras, choruses took place here, music of bygone centuries and music of modern times often sounded.

Physics of beauty

In 2006, the specialists studied the acoustic characteristics of the room, determined by its size, features of the form of architecture, decoration, filling and coating. The Rachmaninov Hall accommodates 252 spectators, has a balcony and a parterre. Its area is 300 square meters. M, height - 8,25 m.

The basic parameters for assessing the sound of concert buildings are as follows:

• reverberation;
• volume;
• clarity;
• timbre;
• Spatiality.

In the concert halls, where the classic is performed, due to the features of the finishes, columns and balconies, the duration of the reverberation and the diffuseness of the sound field are increased.

Analysis of various concert halls showed that the optimal volume of space per spectator varies between 10 and 12 cubic meters. M for the symphony orchestra and 7 cu. M for the chamber. The volume of the Rachmaninov Hall is 10 cubic meters. M per spectator.

The length of the ideal room should be less than 45 m for the symphony and 20 m for the chamber orchestra. The Moscow Conservatory, whose Rachmaninov Hall has a length of 24 m, can be proud of its compliance with the recommendations.

The best reverberation time for small rooms is 1.3 s for a chamber and 2 s for a symphony performance at a sound frequency of 512 Hz. The study room showed 2.1 s in the empty and 1.8 s in the filled state. For comparison: the measurement of this parameter in the Boston Symphony Hall gave 1.8 seconds, in the Vienna Grosser-Music-Farein Saale - 2.05 s, the New York Carnegie Hall - 1.8 s, and in the standard of concert halls, Leipzig Gewandhaus - 2.4 s.

The standard of sounding

Clarity or the degree of clear separation of sounds is estimated by the C80 index, equal to the ratio of the sound energy to 80 ms of sound and after. The distribution of sound in space is characterized by the index LF80. The attenuation of sound with distance from the scene is estimated by the duration of the early fading.

The characteristics of the room were the best for the performance of classical music. And its distinctive feature is the uniform spread of sound throughout the hall, as evidenced by the consistency of the indicators for the stalls and the balcony. Areas with interfering reflections or focusing points were not detected.

The external soundproofing of the room was also excellent. For example, the sound insulation of load-bearing walls is 50 dB, which indicates good noise protection.

Analysis of the measurement results makes it possible to say with certainty that from the point of view of acoustics the Rachmaninov Hall is unique and satisfies the highest world standards for the high-quality performance of musical works. Therefore, to visit the Rachmaninov Hall of the Conservatory, whose address is Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street, 13/6, should every real connoisseur of classical music.