Word: soundly
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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That Carnegie Hall has passed into legend. In its place is a brighter, more brilliant performance space whose sound has a sharper, harder edge. Woodwinds and brass now glitter where once they gleamed. At the same time, cellos and double basses purr where once they roared. Carnegie Hall now sounds crisper, although it still retains much of its fabled warmth. In its new incarnation, it is closer to Boston's lush but clear Symphony Hall than to its former voluptuous self...
...contrary to myth, the old auditorium's sound was not perfect. During the 1946 filming of the movie Carnegie Hall, the ceiling above the stage was ripped open to accommodate ventilation and lights. The hole was masked by canvas panels and curtains, which may actually have enhanced the hall's warmth by soaking up excessive high frequencies. But the first dozen or so rows lay in a dead spot, and an unsettling echo off the back walls was noticeable in loud, brassy passages. Despite its reputation, Carnegie was not quite as good as Boston's jewel and the Grosser Musikvereinsaal...
Inevitably, the sound was altered. Some orchestral players claim they cannot hear one another adequately in performance, that the communication among them no longer has an intimate, chambermusic quality. Some listeners miss the old soul-rattling vibrations. Says Acoustician Larry King, who was not involved in the project: "Carnegie Hall doesn't shake the skull as it did before." Summing up the negative reaction, Music Critic Leighton Kerner of the Village Voice declared, "New York City now has another Avery Fisher Hall," referring to the acoustically troubled home of the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center...
Others disagree. "It is an extraordinary-sounding hall," says Conductor Dennis Russell Davies. "I have the feeling it is more brilliant than it was in the past, but I mean it positively, a spectacularly brilliant orchestral sound." Soprano Benita Valente, who sang there before and after the renovations, calls it a "little brighter, but glorious." Violinist Isaac Stern, president of Carnegie Hall and one of the leaders in the fight to save it from demolition in 1960, says, "What you hear now is this golden wash of sound, and at the same time there is clarity...
After a $50 million renovation, how do the fabled acoustics of Carnegie Hall sound? Brilliant, in both the good sense...