Neo-renaissance, 1885, and still the most unforgiving acoustic in the city. Everything written for the orchestral series was written with this room in mind, and the composers have all stood in it before a note was on paper.

The hall seats 1,104 and had never been amplified for a classical programme until this year. Matthias Böhler's installation uses forty-one speakers and is designed to be inaudible as a system.

Doors open ninety minutes before each concert. The foyer displays the scores for that evening from noon, and the composers are usually standing next to them.

A former engineering works with a flat floor, a twelve-metre ceiling and no seats. Late sessions run here every night from 22:00 until the building asks us to stop, which it always does.

Standing only: 200 capacity for the late sessions, 3,000 for the closing night. The room has no fixed staging, so each night is built and struck in the same evening.

It is a twenty-minute walk from the Rudolfinum along the river, and that walk is part of the week.