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Date: | Fri, 25 Jul 2003 00:16:53 -0700 |
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Sonic Wizardry
By Scott MacClelland / sfcv.org
With exploding trumpets and drums, the Carmel Bach Festival
opened its 66th season last Saturday and simultaneously inaugurated
its "new" home at historic Sunset Center. During the last two
years, the old Gothic-style school auditorium was razed and a
totally new one erected in its place. Notwithstanding a visually
stunning state-of-the-art facility, much of the $21 million
renovation inevitably focused on acoustics, the old ones being
the notorious bete noire of the Monterey Peninsula's most popular
concert venue. By themselves, the acoustics at the new theater
are astonishing - and then some. Unless you've witnessed such
clarity, transparency, sonority and presence elsewhere - and
it's safe to say most concertgoers and musicians haven't - you
are simply not prepared for what you'll hear in this hall.
Elizabeth Wallfisch, the internationally celebrated performing
and recording violinist, and CBF concertmaster, says she's never
heard anything like it anywhere.
Conductor Bruno Weil and his players and singers began rehearsing
in a local church, only gaining access to Sunset a little over
a week before opening night. Once music started sounding,
technicians began "tuning" the hall, adjusting the new reflecting
shell and overhead clouds, measuring reverberations, and - now
we come to the "and then some" part - using an extensive electronic
system of amplifiers and some 80 speakers along the walls to
manipulate the rate of decay time. ...
Full article at: http://www.sfcv.org/arts_revs/carmelbach_7_22_03.php
Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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