[Dixielandjazz] How musicians (and others) perceive sound.

[Stephen Barbone]

Reading the below article, one is reminded of all the threads on the
List concerning sound, how the band perceives it, how the audience
perceives it and how the sound man perceives it. We recall that it is
easy to be critical, especially of the "know nothing" sound man.

Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center is about to undergo a multi million
dollar make over to "improve" it's sound. Musicians are fond of
complaining about it. Or are they?

Just goes to show that sounds are in the ear of the individual listener.
Perhaps our descriptions, likes, dislikes, etc., are more based on our
personalities than upon any fixed reality?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

PS. Nice that Lincoln Center can afford to spend millions on musically
related improvements.


May 21, 2004 - NY Times - By ANNE MIDGETTE

Musicians Say Fisher Hall Isn't as Bad as All That

By ANNE MIDGETTE

       An apocryphal story about Leonard Bernstein has it that he was
asked, after conducting in a new concert hall, to sign the hall's
official guest book. He obliged by writing two words: "Burn it!"

What makes the story apocryphal is that it's told about so many
different concert halls. For people in the orchestra world in general,
and musicians in particular, complaining about concert halls is a
favorite pastime. Since Avery Fisher Hall, home of the New York
Philharmonic, was built in 1962, it has been one of the biggest
scapegoats. But with this week's news that the Philharmonic's board is
planning a serious remedy —
a gut renovation — come the questions: Is the hall really as terrible as
it is made out to be? Or is it just a place everyone loves to hate?

Many musicians dislike it, to be sure, but a sampling of artists who
know it well failed to locate many detractors.

"The buzz is that people don't like to sing there," said the soprano
Heidi Grant Murphy. "I don't feel that way myself. There's something
about the hall that's very true, from a singer's perspective."

"There isn't the surround that you get at Severance Hall," she
continued, referring to Cleveland, "or Carnegie, but you know that what
you're hearing from your standpoint is what's coming out of your mouth."

Glenn Dicterow, the Philharmonic's concertmaster, concurred. "I find I
get good feedback when I play there," he said, referring to the sound he
hears from his own violin. "Some halls that I play in — it sounds
wonderful out there, but I don't feel that sound coming back to me."

Halls are like instruments. Great halls, like Symphony Hall in Boston or
Carnegie, are warm and reverberant. Avery Fisher Hall, by contrast, is
supposed to be dry in its sound, and isolating. There's no supportive
cushion for players. It can be hard to hear other musicians or to
balance the sound properly. But Mr. Dicterow pointed out that musicians
learn to adjust.

"There are things about the hall that are not up to snuff," he said.
"The backstage facilities are not terrific. The musicians don't have
adequate places to warm up. But onstage, I'm not one of its severest
critics. Very often, I enjoy the hall. Obviously, there are problems
with the backs of the sections' not being able to hear the players at
the far side of the stage, and the brass is up against the wall. But I
have heard conductors come in and balance that. It could be worse."

And, like an instrument, the hall may have improved with age. "I came in
1980," Mr. Dicterow said. "I feel it's gotten warmer. The more you play
on a violin, the better it gets."

Renovations, of course, would be a tremendous upheaval to the orchestra,
involving a season or more of performances in some alternate space. But
this is more of a nuisance than a real handicap to musicians. When the
Cleveland Orchestra renovated Severance Hall in 1999, the orchestra
spent part of two seasons performing at the Allen Theater in downtown
Cleveland. "It ended up being a big camping trip," said Ralph Curry, a
cellist with the orchestra.

And the long-term benefits are evident. A newly renovated hall is a
great way to draw audiences, create excitement and confer a
state-of-the-art feeling. In Cleveland, records show, the orchestra more
than made up for any dip in attendance during its displacement with a
new burst of interest once the renovations were done.

But the glare of newness may temporarily blind people to the truth that
every hall, like every person, has its pros and cons, and not one is
perfect. "It's almost too exposed," Mr. Dicterow said of the new Walt
Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, where he recently heard a rehearsal.
"One really has to practice there. You really feel that everybody is
heard instead of the blend you get at Carnegie or Avery Fisher. Then
again, people in
the audience feel more involved, because they're closer."

Intimacy is a feature notable for its absence from the great box of the
Avery Fisher auditorium. Cosmetically and in terms of comfort, a
renovation could do a lot (adding to the ladies' rooms, for a start). It
could help a lot acoustically, too. But it's important to remember that
beauty of sound is sometimes in the ear of the listener.

"You have to bear in mind that the hall we play in is the Barbican,"
said David Pyatt, principal horn of the London Symphony Orchestra,
referring to a modern London auditorium vilified for its poor acoustics.
"It's a breath of fresh air going to Avery Fisher Hall." He conceded
that the hall had "its lonely moments, but that's not necessarily a bad
thing."

"The Concertgebouw is quite similar," he said, referring to the hall in
Amsterdam.

Colin Paris, a double-bass player with the London Symphony, said of
Avery Fisher Hall: "I've always enjoyed playing there. From where I sit,
I can hear the rest of the orchestra. It's quite a resonant hall. I look
forward to playing there next year."

James Conlon, the conductor, put it in perspective, mentioning Amsterdam
and Vienna. "If you compare to the Concertgebouw or the Konzertverein,
well, it's not as good," he said. "But I know at least 20 places that
are worse.