Word: walls
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Wall-to-Wall Strings. In those 30 years, the orchestra has been famed for "the Philadelphia sound." What exactly is that? Very simple, says Ormandy: "It's me! My sound is what it is because I was a violinist. Toscanini was always playing the cello when he conducted, Koussevitzky the double bass, Stokowski the organ." Ormandy plays one big lush violin. His music is coated with the satiny sheen of wall-to-wall strings, a sound that readily lends itself to the works of the romantics-Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Debussy, Brahms...
...Gaps between 500-lb. clouds are partially patched up with strips of black plywood. Slabs of plywood and plaster are mounted behind sides of stage. Balconies are reshaped. Lead curtain is hung behind blue-and-gold mesh screen at rear of stage. Sound-dampening Fiberglas is spread across rear wall. Total cost: $500,000. Bell Telephone Laboratories sends man to evaluate hall's sound with new space-age computer. Machine says major problems-lack of bass, uneven distribution of sound, fluttery echoes-are largely corrected. Critics say machine has flipped circuit; their ears hear otherwise. Musicians...
...plush interior is absorbing too much sound. Hall's deep-pile gold carpeting is rolled up and replaced with black vinyl. All 1,384 thick-cushioned seats on main floor are removed and replaced with 1,502 skinnier wood-back models. Rivulet-shaped panels are tacked on side walls to reflect flow of sound from stage. Hall looks like it was just given permanent wave. Total cost: $470,000. Acoustically, critics happier. Musicians too. Sound is livelier. Bass and high strengthened, echoes reduced. But visually, verdict is negative. Hall looks completely different. Blue walls now recreation-room russet. Curling...
Seen through the calculating eyes of East Germany's economic planners, the Berlin Wall has been a huge success...
Though a moral outrage and a physical eyesore, it has stanched the drain of manpower that until 1961 was the worst economic problem in Walter Ulbricht's grim satellite. By thus stabilizing the labor force and preventing much-needed technicians from escaping to the West, the Wall has contributed substantially to a rise in East German production...