Melbourne Recital Centre

Great space, with beautiful upper-​level views back to the Arts Centre. Acoustics inside the Elizabeth Murdoch Hall is suitable excellent. Very happy when an artist I’m interested in gets announced here.

Must be over 18 but entry is free. Check out Dirty Granny cider
For the next few weeks, Melbourne Recital Centre will be hosting a series of concerts every Friday, Saturday and Sunday with a changing feast of musicians. We got to see their Australia Day concert. The venue is cleverly put together with astro-​turf, mil crate seats around the edges with cushions. If you don’t get there early, you’ll be scratching around for somewhere to sit. They have a few food vendors and drinks suppliers and its done like several other festivals where you buy tokens and then the individual stall holders don’t have to have their own money handling.
The DJ between sets was very good — lots of SKA and roots music. May not suit everybody but had the very mixed crowd there on the day, tapping their toes. It got very windy and cold, so do rug up as its quite exposed to the elements.

The other reviews have pretty much told you everything you need to know about how the Recital Centre looks, and about how it sounds.
They didn’t mention that the seats look uncomfortable but are surprisingly not so. They also didn’t mention the way the whole Murdoch Hall looks like it’s been carved out by giant termites.
What they really didn’t mention (perhaps because it’s not widely known and yes, I would love some confirmation on this) is that the design has been very very carefully and intricately planned out in order to create the best setting for chamber music around. The acoustics are considered some of the best anywhere, and as such any recording made in this hall needs to pay royalties to the acoustic designers as much as the composers/​performers because they are so deeply responsible for the quality of sound.

Just went to see Chunky Move’s latest dance piece, Assembly, as part of the Melbourne Festival and the Recital Centre was the perfect venue. The show was inside Elizabeth Murdoch Hall, which is crafted almost entirely out of ply-​wood — layered and forming sweeping patterns over the walls, forming the streamlined seats, the stage. It’s like you’re inside a bird house. The stage set is this show was also made of wood — a seating stand that faced the audience, on which the dancers performed. Really the ideal setting for this show and the acoustics were fantastic.
Earlier we’d milled about in the large foyer, watching a blues singer on a small stage and drinking a glass of wine while we waited for the doors to open. There’s plenty of space to accommodate everyone and to find your own little corner. Most definitely one of Melbourne’s greatest performance centres.

The first thing you will notice about the Melbourne Recital Centre is of course the facisnating architecture of its exterior. The location of the Centre proved to be quite a challenge to designer Ashton Raggatt McDougall, being situated on post war sloping hills and uneven ground he had to come up with something special in order to achieve acoustic quality. The building seems to be covered in an irregular honeycomb shaped pattern giving it a shell like texture. At night time light escapes through some of these shells and makes for a beautiful structural appearance.
The Recital Centre showcases a range of different performances from stage shows to music performances and even has some amazing artwork displayed on level 1. You can organise to have a guided tour of the MRC in which you will be atken throughout the building and can learn all about the design of the performance spaces, appreciate the artwork and explore backstage. The tours will set you back $ 15 full price and $ 10 for concession and they last usually about 1 hour, well worth it if you have time and are wanting to explore Melbourne.