(Esa-Pekka Salonen and the gang after Beethoven's 7th.)
Bring on the fall - cooling temperatures, darkness earlier in the evening and all - if it means that the LA Phil is back in Walt Disney Concert Hall for its winter performing season! Tonight was the first regular concert of the season (yesterday's fancy gala was technically the season opener I guess). It spectacularly reminded me why the summers at the Bowl just aren't the same, even if it's lovely to be sitting outside: the warm, reverberant sound at WDCH makes the music feel alive, present and right next to you no matter where in the hall you are sitting. Tonight I was in the choral benches up on stage behind the orchestra (only $15!!), so I really did feel in the middle of the music. The program went from very small and intimate with twenty or so musicians on stage - Bach's Contrapunctus XIX in the Berrio arrangement, and Strauss' Metamorphosen for strings - to the enormity of Beethoven's 7th Symphony, and the music sounded warm and luxuriant all the same. A silly audience member ruined the quiet ending of Metamorphosen by clapping too early - TWICE!! - but it was nevertheless a lovely performance. Beethoven's 7th is a mighty applause trap that can't help but whirl the audience into a frenzy, and it did so especially tonight, played and conducted as energetically as it was with Esa-Pekka Salonen on the podium. I'm thrilled that we're back in the concert hall for the season now - and this season looks like a great one. Next up is a cycle of Sibelius' seven symphonies with Esa-Pekka conducting.
2 comments:
i love beethoven's seventh. it sounds like the setup is similar to the davies symphony hall, where the san francisco symphony plays - with cheap seats behind the orchestra.
Well, the seating at Disney isn't quite like Davies hall... Davies has a few seats behind the orchestra yes, but the hall is shaped more like a traditinoal "shoebox" type concert hall, with the stage at one end and the audience mostly facing it. Disney Hall is more like a giant bowl - officially a "vineyard" style hall - where all the seats really surround the stage and the orchestra is in the middle. Here's a picture of Disney, and a picture of Davies to compare.
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