Davies Symphony Hall, SF
Photo by me
Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall is turning 40, and San Francisco Symphony sent out an email celebrating it, which, honestly, has my head on the table. I'm really not sure whether to laugh or cry.
Davies is....not a great hall. There've been one or two renovations trying to fix its acoustical problems; get a big orchestra on stage, which happens a lot, and the sound gets pretty congested. There's no restaurant and the refreshments aren't too varied. It sits on a half-story plinth, meaning that at street level, it presents an unfriendly blank face to the world. This photo shows the problem:
Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall
Uncredited photo received in patron email from SFS
The ticketing area is small and crowded and has an amazingly low ceiling; it has always felt rather mean to me. The staircase to the main lobby is too damn small; there are two sets of elevators and they don't feel like enough.
The email floats the local joke about Lake Louise, the basement-level parking lot used by the musicians, music director, and various administrative folks, as follows:
The sunken parking lot on Franklin Street was originally planned to be a recital hall. The space is now affectionately known by Symphony musicians and staff as “Lake Louise” due to its propensity for flooding.
I've also gotta note that our incoming music director used to conduct home concerts at one of the world's great concert halls, acoustically and architecturally, a hall that was built during his tenure as music director of the LA Phil. Please, Mr. Salonen, can you get a Gehry/Toyota concert hall built here?
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Los Angeles, CA
Photo by me
Previously: Real Estate Matters, or, A Tale of Two Concert Halls
5 comments:
Careful what you wish for. We already have a local hall by Toyota - the Bing Concert Hall at Stanford. It's not exactly Walt Disney Concert Hall in acoustic quality.
Bing is acoustically spotty, but overall I find it quite good in that department. It's not as spectacular as Disney because it's much smaller than Disney. But for that reason it's not suitable for a full symphony orchestra, as was proven when SFS played there at the grand opening.
SF Performances used SF Jazz briefly when Herbst was being renovated. I attended one concert there. It has a fantastically dry acoustic, which may be appropriate for jazz but is utterly unsuited for classical chamber music. The one thing I liked was the cupholders in the seat arms.
I've never attended a concert at Bing. The last time I visited, it was still under construction!
Coming to the Bay Area from Boston, my reference points are Jordan Hall for small halls and Symphony Hall for large halls. Disney is as amazing as Symphony Hall, just in a different way. Bing is nowhere close to Jordan Hall, especially if there is any percussion involved, and I don't think the 20% smaller seating capacity is the reason. It is pretty good for ensembles like choruses and string orchestras and it is certainly way better than any other Stanford venue. And it would be a dull world if we all liked the same things!
Symphony Hall Boston is certainly one of the greatest concert halls in the world; such a beautiful sound!
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