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Suntory Hall

Suntory Hall
サントリーホール
Suntory Hall Outside.jpg
General information
Address 1-13-1 Akasaka
Town or city Minato, Tokyo
Country Japan
Coordinates 35°39′59.9″N 139°44′29″E / 35.666639°N 139.74139°E / 35.666639; 139.74139Coordinates: 35°39′59.9″N 139°44′29″E / 35.666639°N 139.74139°E / 35.666639; 139.74139
Opened 1986
Cost ¥ 6,000 million
Owner Suntory
Technical details
Floor area 12,027 m2
Design and construction
Architect Yasui Architects
Other designers Nagata Acoustics
Website
Homepage
References
Factsheet

The Suntory Hall (サントリーホール?) is a concert hall complex consisting of the "Main Hall" and the "Small Hall" located in the Ark Hills complex, near the U.S. Embassy and TV Asahi in the Akasaka district of northern Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Construction started in the late 1970s and it opened in October 1986. Herbert von Karajan described the hall as "a jewel box of sound".

The Suntory Hall opened on 12 October 1986 in commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of whisky production and twentieth of that of beer by Suntory.

The Herbert von Karajan plaza in front of the Suntory Hall, which was constructed in April 1998, is in remembrance of the maestro, who was involved in the design of the hall and who also recommended its vineyard style as used at the Berliner Philharmonie, in which the audience surrounds the concert floor in the Main Hall. He also helped with its acoustical evaluation. Suntory was designed as a compromise hybrid seating layout, having substantially less acoustically inferior seats sidewards and behind the stage than Berlin Philharmonie, incorporating elements of both the arena layout and vineyard style of the Berlin Philharmonie and classical shoeboxes like Vienna Musikverein. Apparently at the time of construction a visionary modification of the Berlin Philharmonie layout, since recent acoustic research clearly recognizes the advantage of the shoebox halls over Berlin Philharmonie architect Sharoun's unique idea of placing audience all around musicians, even if it meant that many sit in the acoustical offside with weak sound, away from the preferential directions many classical instruments and singers emit sound. Architectural design was by Shoichi Sano, Yasui Architects and that of the acoustics by Minoru Nagata (Nagata Acoustics).


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