The Live Concert Experience
I’ve only been in Philly now for about 10 months, and am a transplant, originally from Boston, but have worked in many concert halls in one capacity or another around the country.
In the category of “Halls I have Known” quite intimately, having produced concerts there, are:
Symphony Hall in Boston
Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory
Orchestra Hall in Detroit
The Fox Theater in Detroit
Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center
Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center
Carnegie Hall in NYC
Symphony Space in NYC
...as well as numerous others which time and age conspire against me to recall…I have been to concerts in halls around the world, including the Musikverein in Vienna which is just splendid. But, there are others where I MUST go in the coming years, two especially come to mind—Los Angeles/Disney Hall and the home of the Berlin Philharmonic, both of which are reportedly equally great “concert experiences.”
Now that I’ve been here for a bit, I’m getting around to other halls and spaces in the city and its environs, and it’s always something I enjoy. I heard Wayne Shorter out at the Keswick a few weeks ago. Old theaters are always a lot of fun, even if they do still need several million dollars worth of work to restore, and this past weekend a couple of us went out to Bryn Mawr to hear the dedication concert for the new organ by Rieger Orgelbau with Cathedral of Notre Dame organist Olivier Latry. It’s a magnificent instrument in a gorgeous space. Great fun. I can see why people become organ addicts!
I’ve never worked in a brand new space such as ours, and I have to say, Perelman, for example, has an intimacy that I just love for chamber music and jazz especially, and Verizon for orchestra concerts is a wonderful setting with wonderful clarity and great spatial separation. Many of the older halls I’ve worked at date from the great era of concert hall building in this country in the 1920s, modeled after the European tradition of shoebox design. Others I’ve worked at date from the mid 1960’s, unique in and of themselves. Here, in a blend of form and function, modern and innovative design, coupled with the complex and subjective contemporary understanding of acoustics, has produced a unique and beautiful hall here in Philly, with a very special acoustical flavor.
All of that is a long preface to my question of, where do you go to listen to live music? Presumably many readers come to Kimmel Center Halls—Perelman and Verizon—but I assume you go to other spaces as well? And what are your thoughts about the halls you go to and why? Is your choice artist or ensemble driven? Is it driven by loyalty to a space?
My heart is at the Academy of Music.
However, I used to love listening to chamber groups rehearse in my college campus' rehearsal rooms. The space was so small that the sound would bounce off the walls - a very cool experience.
Old Churches are a great place to hear music too. I don't have any one specific hall that I like, but there is something about the way those buildings are built that make organs sound extra sweet.
You have got to go to the Curtis Institute. they
have great student recitals. Check them out at Curtis.edu
Indeed, I hear great things about the student recitals there, haven't been yet but you're right I must and will go. I did get the tour their when I first moved here and got to see that wonderful space in Field Hall...plus, as a former classical musician, just the history on the walls there was enough to send me into "shock and awe"!!!!!! But I guess that's another topic for the blog...Philly musical history????
Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in NYC is one of my personal favorites, and the new Jazz facility at Columbus Circle is extraordinary....