Sapporo Concert Hall 'Kitara'

This guide to Sapporo Concert Hall 'Kitara' turns on a trick question about which of its 2,008 wraparound seats gets the best sound, then follows the acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, a former oboe and saxophone player, as he throws out the usual shoebox shape for a vineyard-style hall. It traces the angled walls and heavy concrete ceiling designed to keep every reflection inside the room instead of over the stage. You'll hear what a visiting conductor called the result when he stood here in 1998. Listen from a seat partway up the terraces, where the sound wraps in from every side.