The $73 million Soka Performing Arts Center, on the campus of Soka University in Aliso Viejo, opened with a gala concert Saturday night performed by the Pacific Symphony conducted by Carl St.Clair. Fanfare trumpeters greeted listeners out front. Inside, the introductory speeches were remarkably short.
First impressions of the 1,000-seat multipurpose concert hall (not quite full on opening night) were good. The stage sits below every seat in the house, excepting the first row; and the upward sweep of the seating area is dramatic. The stage floor is a blond wood. Surrounding it are ribbed walls of a darker wood. It?s a handsome room, suggesting a plain version of Disney Concert Hall in L.A.
The Pacific Symphony receives a standing ovation at the opening of the Soka Performing Arts Center in Aliso Viejo on Saturday night.
TIMOTHY MANGAN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
ADVERTISEMENT
Soka Performing Arts Center opening
With: Pacific Symphony, Carl St.Clair, conductor; Horacio Guti?rrez, piano
When: Sept. 17
Next: The St. Petersburg Symphony performs Oct. 4
How much: $48
Call: 949-480-4278
Online: www.performingarts.soka.edu
?
See a slide show of Soka Performing Arts Center
The acoustician here, as at Disney, is Yasuhisa Toyota. Sampled from two different seating areas, the hall?s acoustics proved lively and warm and never brittle at high volume levels.
Heard from a stage right seat, however, the orchestra?s athletic overture, John Adams? ?Short Ride in a Fast Machine,? sounded overcrowded, its musical layers lacking in definition. Rachmaninoff?s lush Second Piano Concerto, with Horacio Guti?rrez as soloist, proved similarly clotted when everyone was playing, but in quieter passages, one noticed crispness in the piano sound, a blush on the violins, and immediacy in the solo woodwinds.
The sound picture was more satisfactorily focused listening from a seat in front of the orchestra in the top tier. Selections from Prokofiev?s ?Romeo and Juliet? and the Suite No. 2 from Ravel?s ?Daphnis and Chloe? emerged in a more compact frame, all of one piece. A touch of the treble overtones had vanished, lending the orchestra a pleasant glossiness, though with a consequent lack of sizzle in loud, climactic passages.
The acoustics can be adjusted, and the musicians will settle in. The hall shows real promise of becoming the ?jewel? that St.Clair pronounced it. It would have been nice to hear a work for smaller ensemble, by Mozart or Haydn, say, to contrast with the sonic spectaculars. But it?s already a lovely space to listen to music. Going back to hear it develop will be a pleasure.
Contact the writer: 714-796-6811 or tmangan@ocregister.com
Source: http://www.ocregister.com/entertainment/performing-317738-center-soka.html
iphone 4 cases spongebob bot northern lights foot locker cats funny pics
No comments:
Post a Comment