Many lifetimes ago in this land far far away from my Southern California home, this young kid took…read morehis violin here with the Civic Youth Orchestra and played in this great hall. I'll never forget the memories we made here. This was a performance/sight seeing tour so not only did our guides give us a history of the area and venues, but we were able to make our own. Not many people can ever say they've played here, especially not many Americans, certainly not from my area, or my background. The fact that we were able to secure the nations top concert hall for a foreign youth symphony was pretty special. I'm also kind of glad to have the 1st English review to really give a completely different perspective (I translated the previously posted reviews).
Most Americans are uncultured, untraveled, and to some degree I am too, but without going into too much detail, this is a must for anyone. There are no other halls like this Imperial Concert Hall. Sure Germany has more famous composers, but neither the Opernhaus Dortmund or Konzerthaus have the prestige. You'll often see the Czech Philharmonic playing here. Other halls of this era tend to look more like bank's with the pillars, but the Mendellsohn statue and the ornate interior make this special. The curtains, the everything handcrafted, carved. It has some modern amenities, but has not lost it's old world feel. Compared to more modern halls the acoustics are excellent.
The back hallways aren't as small as I'd thought, usually places have small back rooms and staging areas, the lighting is very bright to the performer, but dim to the audience. The seats are pretty comfortable, certainly for an hour or two. The bathrooms have modern amenities and even those are still pretty opulent. You can tell this place was built to stage performances to some high class folks with the coat racks, # of benches and the way the main hallways are designed.
When you're on stage performing in a place like this you can almost hear the crowds of hundreds of years applauding you through the ages as you stand in the footsteps of greatness.
