Word: boettcher
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Boettcher Hall is typical of the Denver spirit. Part of the exterior walls is also glass, but there is nothing lyrical about them. They reveal a lobby that flaunts not marble or chrome but the building's functional and mechanical workings. On opening night, concertgoers could be heard arranging "to meet up at the duct" at intermission. A few thought they had come in the wrong way and wandered backstage...
Once beyond the pipes and valves, a wholly new experience awaits U.S. audiences. Boettcher is the first "surround" music hall in the country, with 360° seating around the orchestra. There are a few such auditoriums elsewhere-in Mexico City and Berlin-but orthodox acousticians still believe that the best sound is heard in long, narrow rectangular spaces. In Boettcher, there are "terraces" at several levels from which the audience can watch the players from different angles and much more intimately; no seat is farther than 85 ft. from the stage and most are within...
...acoustics are very good, and that is a triumph as well as a vindication for Acoustician Christopher Jaffe, 50. The problem with a circular design is that sound diffuses quickly, bounces around, losing clarity and focus. Jaffe, with the Boettcher architects, Hardy, Holzman, Pfeiffer Associates, has managed to create a lush, integral sound by using such devices as 106 acrylic "reflector" discs suspended from the ceiling and a huge vault below the stage. There are some minor, doubtless correctable difficulties. The bass is not quite rich enough. When Van Cliburn sat down on opening night to slam his way through...
...musicians love the Boettcher. The orchestra is understaffed (83 members, compared with Boston's 105), and they play ploddingly. But as French Horn Player John Zirbel notes, "we will improve almost at once because for the first time we can hear ourselves play. That means better attack and intonation...
...some Denverites that is more than an untimely irony. Financing for the center is, inevitably, complicated. It depends on city bond issues, private funds, including grants from the Boettcher Foundation and especially from two foundations endowed by the Bonfils family, who got rich in publishing. Sea well, ever a pivotal Denver figure, is president of both. Many people, including City Councilwoman Cathy Donahue, are afraid that eventually Denver will be left with much of the bill: "It's simply too expensive." Mayor William McNichols admits that there is strain: "We've had sessions that would match whatever Muhammad...