wildbill@ucbvax.UUCP (05/10/84)
I moved out to the Bay Area 5 years ago and started attending Symphony
concerts 3 years ago, after getting coursework down to a manageable
level. De Waart's main emphasis has been on developing a sound corps of
quality musicians, which was necessary, given that Seiji Ozawa, his
predecessor in the job, had not spent enough time with the orchestra
in his last couple of years to realize that some of the aging musicians
couldn't quite cut it on the level they were expected to perform at.
Local interest, which had begun to flag, revived quickly and has since
risen to the point where a new 3,000+ seat symphony hall was built, which the
orchestra now sells out 4 times a week. Although some of this may be due
to a shakeup on the Symphony board which happened around then, it's still
pretty impressive. The Symphony currently derives almost 2/3 of its
support from ticket sales, one of the highest percentages in the country.
Musically, the reviews, although still good, are not quite as glowing.
One reviewer once commented: "All of which goes to show that as a
conductor, de Waart is a pretty good oboe player." The other point
is "quality", not "first-class". This is most notable in the brass
section; about 1 major + 1 minor bobble per brass-heavy work is
par for the course. General consensus here is that the SFS has moved
very close to the forefront of the non-"big-name" orchestras, and
given the reviews produced on their Eastern tour last fall, could
easily be within a few years of making the jump to the BSO/NYPhil/ChiSymph
level (or very close).
Many of the problems you noted on the recordings may be due to the
location. Up until the recent installation of the Ruffati organ which
now graces the back of Davies Hall, the acoustics of the place were
typically described as "mediocre", if the reviewer was feeling charitable.
Not an Avery Fisher-scale disaster, but certainly nothing to write home
about. The most frequently cited problem was that the hall was too "live",
a problem only exacerbated by the lack of an audience in the recording
session (people are better sound absorbers than empty seats). The organ
chamber now soaks up a good bit of the sound that used to bounce off
the back wall, mellows it, and sends enough of it back to make things
better than they were before. Acoustics are now regarded as "average".
Don't complain too much, though, since acoustic design for halls this
size is still very much a black art. Failures are so expensive, too!
Comments appreciated, flames welcomed. Anybody else out there want
to swap performance reviews/horror stories/etc.?
Bill Laubenheimer
----------------------------------------UC-Berkeley Computer Science
...Killjoy WAS here! ucbvax!wildbill