L.A. Phil

I’m back from my trip to Pasadena for the mini-conference on “Global Justice.” (It was great.) My title, however, refers not to philosophy but to the L.A. Philharmonic. I’ll post something about the conference if I find the time and can think of anything interesting to write, but I want to say something about my visit to the new Frank Gehry-designed Disney Theater.

The concert was Shostakovich, Symphony no.9, and Mahler, Songs from ‘Des Knaben Wunderhorn’ sung by Matthias Goerne. The star of the show – there’s no doubt – was the building. It’s spectacular. Up close, it looks pretty much as you’d expect it from pictures, but a few things stood out in person. Most of all, it’s – well – pretty. It’s not at all cold, as you might expect from a big metal thing with no windows in the main surfaces. I hadn’t quite registered (what’s perfectly obvious) that the whole complex is radically asymmetrical, inside and out (except for the concert space itself). There are all kinds of oddball spaces, stairwells, lobbies, etc. filling out the area between the concert space and the outer shell. Usually, I don’t like that kind of thing – it often strikes me as too self-conscious and trying call attention to its own breaking away from expectations. But not here – it all seems completely natural and relaxed and really wonderful.

The main concert space is much bigger and more open than I expected from pictures – such as this seating chart. Seating goes all the way around the stage – I sat directly stage right. The acoustics were generally great. There was a pre-concert string quartet, and everything – and I mean everything – was crystal clear. The Shostakovich sounded wonderful, too. The Mahler was a bit of a let-down acoustically – the quite parts were great, but the vocals were sometimes drowned out by the orchestra. I think this was probably because I was sitting on the side of the stage and Goerne was projecting straight ahead.

The playing was very good, but not spectacular. Still, the audience burst into applause between movements of the Shastakovich. (After the intermission, the conductor “suggested” that we not applaud between songs of the Mahler – whereupon the audience burst into applause.) My interpretation: everyone was just very excited to be there. It was very exciting.