Mitch Friedfeld <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Susan Juhl asked if anyone attended opening night at Disney Hall.  I
>didn't, but Ron Streicher did. ...

I have been visiting the list archives, came across this thread, and
thought to add my belated opinions.

The opening galas were too expensive for my budget but I have been a
subscriber to the LA Philharmonic for a few seasons and have heard four
programs in the new Walt Disney Concert Hall (WDCH).

Synopsis: Funky exterior, unimpressive interior, magnificent auditorium.

At my request, I am seated behind the orchestra, to "organ right" in the
next-to-last row.  The auditorium is beautiful to look at but I, along
with many, are uncomfortable in the narrow seats with very little legroom.
The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion suffers from muddy sound but it seated
over 1,000 more people in slightly more comfort.  The WDCH's interior
public spaces are dark, low-ceilinged, and with narrow entries into the
performance space.  Once seated, audience members have to stand to let
people by; there is no room to turn, and it is difficult to cross/uncross
one's legs without kicking the seat in front.  The low comfort levels
are already causing rumblings of discontent among subscribers and it
remains to be seen if the wonderful acoustics can keep people coming
back once the novelty has worn off.

My first concert was a Saturday evening performance of Mahler's 2nd with
Salonen conducting.  This "all hands drill" was chosed specifically to
show off the dynamic range of the hall and it was a wise choice.  For
the first time, I could distinguish each of the string sections as
separate entities.  Being able to tell double bass from cello from viola
from violin was very refreshing.  Unlike the Dorothy Chandler, I could
readily attach the sounds I heard from the violins to the bowings they
were using.  Much, much crisper and infinitely better defined than before.
I am close to the woodwinds, horns, and percussion and therefore hear
those sections very well.  The flutes enveloped me - a surprise given
how few of them there are.  The harps, likewise.  None of the sections
overpowered the others and the percussion did not dominate as I had
initially thought it might.  A constant in all the performances I've
heard is the lack of reverberation.  When the orchestra goes from fff
to silent, the sound decays to pin-drop silence in just the right amount
of time.  Pin-drop is a relative term since LA audiences are notorious
for coughing at the most inopportune times.  Audience behavior continues
to lag and will have to improve.

I could not hear the soprano soloist from my seat since the orchestra
accompanied her much more than the mezzo.  I am not a fan of vocal music
so this was no great loss at that particular concert.  There are some
consequences, I believe, for violin concertos (more below) and perhaps
other solo works.  Salonen was very engaged with the piece, turning beet
red on occasions, and mouthing words along with the chorus.

The second encounter was a rehearsal of a youth concert featuring
"The Invention of Paper" by Tan Dun and "Peter and the Wolf." Assistant
conductor Yasuo Shinozaki led these works, both of which were multimedia
shows with videocameras all over and speakers dangling from the ceiling.
Large rolls of paper figured heavily in the Tan Dun work with percussionists
and one front-of-stage soloist tapping, pounding, riffling, and mouth-harping
to generate sound effects.  I preferred the second piece.  I was seated
in the Terrace section, nearest to the violins.  Again, the sound quality
and balance were excellent from the subtle sections all the way to the
pound and clang.

Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic dazzled in an evening of Bartok
and Schubert.  Back to the behind the orchestra first for the Music for
Strings, Percussion, and Celesta.  No knock on the LA Philharmonic, but
I have never heard ensemble playing like this before.  Each of the two
string orchestras played with cohesiveness that is hard to describe.
One had to be there.  The woodwinds must have thought they were in a
swing band, bobbing and weaving, but without artifice.  It is a very
young-looking ensemble taken all-in-all.  The Schubert Ninth closed out
the program with more of the same.  Rattle conducts without a score and,
for long stretches, clasped the baton in his fist, nudged here, winked
there, and made it seem as if the orchestra could knock people's socks
off without him even being there.  Several long-time Philharmonic
subscribers, well-travelled in the world's great halls, said it was the
finest evening of music they had ever experienced.

Roberto Abbado and the LA Philharmonic were up the next night for an odd
program: Fracesconi's "Cobalt and Scarlet: Two Colors of Dawn" Ravel's
"Alborada," the Saint-Saens Violin Concerto No.  3 with concertmaster
Martin Chalifour soloist, and concluding with Ravel again, "Daphnis
and Chloe Suite No.3" This was a letdown after Berlin but then that
is a tough act to follow.  Abbado had to reorder the program to put the
high-body-count Francesconi first rather than second.  The stage change,
he said, would take twenty minutes otherwise.  I didn't find much in
the piece but I am also not too fond of modern works which, to me, rely
overmuch on percussion.  Intermission followed after this twenty five
minute piece.  The two Ravel pieces continued to show off the hall's
easy ability to handle the loud to the soft and back again.  The lyrical,
sweet violin concerto, sandwiched in-between, seemed out of place.
Chalifour faced away from my position but I could hear him even with
the orchestra playing.  The violin sound was odd.  Not good or bad,
just different frequency ranges rolled off.  His is not a powerful tone
so other violinists may sound more robust even from a seat behind the
orchestra.  When it comes to full-up combat like Tchaikovsky, it may be
better to relocate.  Not to mention when and if they play the Saint-Saens
Third Symphony.  Probably not a good idea to be ten feet to the right
of the organ at that concert.

Overall, I think everyone is delighted with how the hall sounds and has
bought in to Yasuhisa Toyota's minimalist design philosophy.  He believes
that musicians of that high caliber will adjust their playing over time
to achieve a unique sound within the auditorium.  He therefore designs
very few adjustable parameters into his halls.  There has been a lot
made of this, especially in light of Kansas City releasing Russell
Johnson's firm in favor of Nagata Acoustics.  This, to me, seems like a
very odd decision.  There is nothing to say that one method is preferable
to another, in my opinion.  Why should all halls be built alike or for
that matter, why should all orchestras sound alike?

Looking at the rest of the project, few are ambivalent about the exterior.
Most love it, some hate it.  The interior spaces, apart from the auditorium,
will take some getting used to.  Low ceilings and low light levels
(Gehry's insistence, I am told) make many of us feel confined.  The large
number of access points and mini-lobbies are making it hard for people
who would normally meet at intermission to do so.  One may see one's
friends in the panoramic auditorium but they are hard to find during the
breaks and once the concert lets out.

For some reason, the Philharmonic Association has decided to seat
latecomers after the first movement of the opening piece.  This was
highly distracting in the Mahler.  Rattle got off the podium aduring the
first break in the Bartok to talk to his section heads while the high-dollar
latecomers walked over creaky wooden boards to their $175 seats.  This
has made most of us ordinary schlubs livid.  Angry letters have been and
continue to be written to the Association's brass.  Apart from that,
coughs sound like gunshots and no amount of announcements or exhortations
can induce everyone to turn off his cellphone and unwrap his cough-drops
before the downbeat.  At the end of Abbado's program, audience members
streamed out of the hall while curtain calls were still going on.  This
must be highly disconcerting for conductor and performers alike.  All
of this will take some undoing and no one knows if or how change can be
effected.

For those interested, I have transcribed notes from February 2001 from
a talk given by Yasuhisa Toyota shortly after groundbreaking.  I think
he has delivered on everything he promised.  With margin.

http://www.rettacs.org/Theatre/(Special)_MrToyota_on_the_Hall.html

--- Ravi Narasimhan