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PLU - That isn't a wide aisle, but rather, the backs of the center section seats. You can see the two side isles to the left and right of the center section. It's just an oddity of the photograph.

I am not sure it is really one of the best venues in terms of acoustics (well, definitely not), but it certainly is beautiful...
When I lived in Sydney sometimes they organized night concerts with the stage on water (Sydney Harbour), and it looked magnificent with the reflections of the light on the water around the stage etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=041nXAAn714

Including this additional video from the Royal Albert Hall mostly for the thrilling musical sequence. After a rousing rendition of Jerusalem similar to the one in the first post, the conductor quiets the enthusiastic audience(at 3:00) to utter silence and begins a pp a capella rendition(reminds me of the Mahler 8th)of God Save the Queen which then crescendos to ff on the second verse.

I will make an unexpected nomination, for acoustical quality, AND historical significance, AND beauty:

Chicago's "Auditorium Theater". Chicago's Auditorium Theater "Landmark Stage" website

It was sometimes called the "eighth wonder of the world". The very large building, located at Wabash and East Congress Parkway, is now then home of Roosevelt University (which also owns the building). Design and Construction supervision was done by Denkmar Alder and Louis Sullivan. It is about to celebrate its 125th anniversary. (Frank Llyod Wright was also working as a draftsman in their office at this time, and he may have made some contributions to the design and/or decorations.)

It is not Sullivan's most influential work, (just look at any "Skyscraper"; Sullivan invented them). The building's exterior is fairly dull, not as memorable as the partners' greatest large-scale builidngs. But the auditorium itself is an incredible, outstanding realization of early "Prairie School" architectury, using stone arches and traditional decoration (ears of corn, waves of grain, and etc.) in ways which soon became nearly definitive of "early Prairie School" buildings.

It is restored to it's original splendor (mostly, restoration still proceeds.) This incudes old-style incandescent lighting, using carbon filaments. (I understand it to have been the first large building to be lit using ONLY electrical-incandescent technology, without any gas or oil fixtures.)

It was also the World's first large building with central Air Conditioning, which seems to have been nothing more than a temporary fad ) Air conditioning was done using electrical blowers over huge blocks of ice.

It's still in use, but not for it's original intended tenants: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Opera abandoned the building, because the amount of seating was just too large for their potential audience. (Chicago's Auditorium Theater can seat an audience of well over 4000 people, while Chicago's Orchestra Hall seats barely 2500. Royal Albert Hall is about 1200 seats larger than the Auditorium Theater, but has vast areas of poor sound and sight among those seats.)

Unfortunately (for the finances of the artistic organizations), attendees quickly figured out that the sound quality is nearly identical, nearly perfect, from almost any seat in the hall (and so are the sight lines). It became nearly impossible to charge a great deal more money for the "good" seats, because all the seats were (and are) VERY good. The public didn't buy the "premium seats" at premium prices. And there was nearly always A LOT of empty space available for concert goers who watched their wallets carefully, and waited for last minute "public rush" seating at deep discount prices.

In a rather extreme turn-around from the usual situation, "box seats" were added to the Auditorium as an afterthought, and (IMO) constitute the WORST seats in the Hall.

So, the CSO moved to a much smaller hall a few blocks away (Orchestra Hall on Michigan Avenue). It has only about 2500 seats, and IMO, concerts in Orchestra Hall sound much worse, from many of the "cheap" seats, than they would sound for an audience seated in the Auditorium. But sellouts in Orchestra Hall are quite frequent, suporting higher ticket prices in general; and centered main floor seats do sound a lot better than the cheap seats in the upper side balconies, supporting a big "premium" in pricing according to the specific seating area.

The Auditorium has no permanent resident Orchestra, and hosts a variety of performances - most of them by artists using big, nasty PA systems with "studio" microphones. They aren't necessary, except when Rock Bands (and similar) want to play in competition with a lot of simultaneous audience screaming. A Steinway Model D, alone or with Orchestra, would sound fantastic - even if the hall were completely filled with patrons who chose to drag along their winter clothing.

The hall is absolutely beautiful, both in large scale design and in tiny details. If you are ever in Chicago and have a couple of hours available, you should take one of the public tours. I'm serious, this is one of the World's most amazing (and pretty much neglected) venues.

I'm just glad we have the Royal Concertgebouw, but we're spoiled.

Don't forget the finest orchestra in the world which comes with the package!

So they say, well, I equally prefer the Wiener in the Musikverein, or the Berliner in their "Circus Karanjani", or the KCG in the MV or the B.Ph. in the C.K. or the W.PH. in the C.G, they all are fantastic, orchestras and venues.

Now we know how many souls it takes to fill the Albert Hall.