It's a strange hall, with the orchestra in the center as in a theater-in-the-round, which means some people are sitting behind the orchestra. And the hanging lights are glass-covered, so there is a lot of reflected sound. Yet for some reason it sounded better this week.
ADDED NOTES:
In response to the question added as a comment:
Boettcher Hall is unique. It was in fact designed to be a theater-in-the-round, but that's an acoustical disaster. They did a redesign in 1993, but they are hoping to do a major renovation in a few years as part of a bond initiative. However, they are counting on $30M in donations as part of the funding, and with the economic changes, it's unlikely they will get that any time soon.
As for photos of the hall, I did not take any, and you are asked to refrain from taking photos. However there are a few sites that will show the layout:
This site has some thumbnails on the top row you can click on to see the hall:
http://www.artscomplex.com/pages/photogallery.html
Back to the concert review:
The soloist was good but not perfect. Early on there were some intonation problems. Her rhythm was a little loose, and the articulation on the runs was sloppy at times. However, she had an absolutely gorgeous sound and was a great soloist.
The evening opened with a lively reading of the overture to The Magic Flute. That was followed by the Ralph Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 5 in D major. The conductor spoke in great detail about how it's not like other Vaughan Williams, and I was suddenly hopeful that it would not be as boring as I expected. I was wrong. This snoozefest was, in the words of my wife, "only slightly more interesting than elevator music."
However, it was still a good concert.
2 comments:
Can you include an iPhone picture of the hall on the inside to illustrate the geography?
See the added notes to the post above.
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