02 · GALLERY
Five frames.
City Recital Hall is the chamber-music answer to Sydney Opera House. Tucked between two CBD skyscrapers in a laneway off Pitt Street, the 1999 shoebox seats 1,238 across three steep balconies of pale timber, closer in feel to Wigmore Hall than to the Opera House Concert Hall. Australian Brandenburg Orchestra residencies anchor the early-music programme. The laneway entrance is hung with Michael Thomas Hill's Forgotten Songs, 120 birdcages playing recorded calls of birds locally extinct from central Sydney. Listening to the cages before the gig is part of the gig.
Stop in Angel Place laneway under the Forgotten Songs installation before the concert. The birdcage soundscape is the prelude.
Acoustically the best room in Sydney for chamber music. Intimate, intentional, built for purpose.
Australian Brandenburg Orchestra residencies run year-round, Wednesday and Friday evenings the main programme. Sydney Festival in January features international chamber programming.
Box office Monday to Friday 09:30 to 17:30, Saturday 12:00 to 17:30. Performances most evenings during the main season.
Train to Wynyard or Martin Place, three-minute walk. The hall sits inside Angel Place, a laneway connecting Pitt Street and George Street. From Circular Quay, ten-minute walk.