RFH experts - where best to sit?

[HighlandDougie]

Having discovered that I am due to be in London in October when Abbado and the Lucerne Orchestra are in the RFH and that there are a few seats left on the Tuesday in a right hand side box/rear stalls (row BB), any advice from Hall experts on preferences? I usually sit around row F so am a bit unfamiliar with the sound to the side/further back

[Don Petter]

We always used to like the upper boxes. Great value, and no annoying people around you. (You can buy one or two seats of the four.)

Haven't been for a few years, since we moved to the sticks, though.

[PaulT]

Row BB area will be fine especially for a big work like the Bruckner 5. I used to sit there quite regularly and recall many enjoyable concerts, not least a couple of Verdi Requiems given by Giulini in the late 1980s and Klemperer's last Mahler 2 some years earlier.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Does the RFH still have electronic enhancement, or were the acoustical inadequacies finally overcome at the time of the refurbishment?

[Petrushka]

We always used to like the upper boxes. Great value, and no annoying people around you. (You can buy one or two seats of the four.)

Haven't been for a few years, since we moved to the sticks, though.

I was pleasantly surprised when my seat in one of the upper boxes for the BPO/Rattle Mahler 3 in February turned out to be far better than expected. So much so, in fact, that I immediately booked in the same area for the very same concert Highland Dougie is attending.

[Ferretfancy]

Since the RFH underwent it's £40million rebuild, because it really was that drastic, the acoustic has certainly improved in general, but it is still patchy and can vary by a single row. I would avoid at all cost any seat under the overhang of the balcony, which rules out almost all of the rear stalls. Since the hall re-opened all the orchestras have jacked up the prices, and naturally the most expensive seats towards the rear of the front stalls are very good. If you don't mind not being able to see the musicians clearly the back of the balcony is good.
The overall effect nowadays is certainly very clear, but it still lacks warmth, and in some cases the bass seems to be very attenuated. They've done the best that they can, but the basic design problem remains.
One good feature is that there is now more knee room in the stalls seats, and they have improved the comfort of the seats behind the orchestra. To do this they had to alter the rake of the stalls floor by removing it in it's entirety, nine inches of concrete ! They also removed all the panelling in order to fill a void in the side walls to give greater solidity to the structure. There is no way that you could guess that this has been done. The entire ceiling of the auditorium has been raised very slightly, and the wave shape structure modelled in much heavier plaster with a new canopy over the platform.
I'm still not convinced by the changes in acoustic from an audience point of view, but I understand that it is much better for musicians. Has anybody on this thread direct experience of playing there recently?

[verismissimo]

In the cheap choir seats!

[HighlandDougie]

Many thanks to all for the good advice and the helpful information. Seats bought in CC so, fingers crossed, Bruckner should sound appropriately majestic in that spot.