First picture of full David Geffen Hall
NewsThis was last night’s thank-you concert for construction workers and their families.
The hall officially reopens today.
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Notice the violators of the hall mask mandate standing on the left, happily spreading Covid to their fellow seat-mates.
Covid Schmovid.
Carl, just stay in your bedroom and enjoy YouTube. And wipe all your doorknobs on the way to your gender neutral bathroom.
The rapid resort to hyperbole is a sure sign that you have no substantive arguments.
I’ll be there on Wednesday for the first official concert with the orchestra. I’ll be masked, and I predict the majority of the audience will be as well. This is NYC, not some republican backwater.
I hope DeSantis sends some migrants to make the audience more diverse. Maybe one of them could even audition for the orchestra and get in with a no screen audition…
What makes the US look so backward and hopeless from here (Europe) is their pathological bipartisan division, where everything becomes a “with us or against us” idiotic dichotomy.
Masks and corona viruses, which have progressed to weakened flu like threat levels, are no political issues, but issues of balancing risks against efforts and costs.
Not issues of my favourite political team (out of only two, how sad is that) promotes wearing them or not.
I was at Geffen for last night’s Philharmonic Concert. I estimate that between one-third to one-half of the audience were unmasked during the performance. I was appalled. No announcement reminding audience to mask up. No ushers reminding people either. So much for the Philharmonic’s own Health and Safety Guidelines which say: “While inside David Geffen Hall, everyone is required to wear a properly fitting mask over their nose and mouth at all times except when eating and drinking in designated areas.
And all those dreadful unmasked string players as well. What has the world come to.
Early reports from musicians and audience are that the hall sounds spectacular
It should be for $550M. Otherwise we need to rename it Sum Ting Wong Hall.
Wasn’t Sum Ting Wong the pilot who crashed landed Flight 214 in San Francisco?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpP2S6c74Ts
You left out “Gong” between “Ting” and “Wong”
What I want to know is how they could show up at a NY Phil concert without headphones and a quality playlist?
There was no hall mask mandate.
Looks like a super spreader event to me.
I don’t believe masks are required.
The entire orchestra is unmasked and mask mandates have been lifter here.
There also doesn’t appear to be anything on the website regarding masks.
I was there for the Oct 15 concert. Some of the string players were masked. The mask mandate has NOT been lifted, but it is not reinforced either. The hall is severly understaffed. Check the NY Philharmonic Health and Safety Guidelines for yourself. They say: “While inside David Geffen Hall, everyone is required to wear a properly fitting mask over their nose and mouth at all times except when eating and drinking in designated areas.”
I’m with you on this one, Carl. NY Philharmonic concerts are set to be super-spreader events. I was there last night (Oct 15). There were non-masked people everywhere!
Oh look. A Kleenex box with seats. BORING architecture.
Who cares?
When they built the new hall in Philly about 20 years ago, there was too much focus on architecture and it negatively impacted the acoustics.
As far as I’m concerned, if the sound is great, who cares what it looks like? I’d trade in the cello-shaped hall here for a shoe-box with better acoustics in a heart-beat.
A wonderful gesture for the workers who built the hall.
But, can we have a group raspberry for whoever designed the new lobby? Especially for that carpet. It’s positively atrocious. My girlfriend said she felt personally insulted by it.
Hmm…somehow I sense a contradiction.
I was there… what a disappointment!!
Sounds just as bad as the Elbowphilharmmonie (or whatever it’s called over in Deutschland)?
You know what it’s called, and you feigned ignorance is not witty.
Interesting. Have you ever been in either hall to issue any opinion?
They ran out of chandeliers at ABC Carpet + Home on Broadway, so they had to hang bare light bulbs from the ceiling. So 1990s bistro vibe.
Opps, they forgot to put in the organ. Time to rip up those back seats.
The fabric covering the seats fell off a truck in the Bronx.
LOL. Unlike acoustics, taste is way more personal and open to interpretation. In my case, the $500 million spent on Geffen proves that money ain’t everything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i4flRIN61g
Sounds pretty fucking amazing to me, and it’s recorded on a smartphone!
Brass sounds too bright, strings indistinct, too much reverb with woodwinds
the band sounded like it was running through a final rehearsal. well, today’s the official big day anyway when critics finally get to hear the hall
And you can see Craap flailing away as usual. Seoul get ready…
Two questions (as permitted by the ADA):
1. Is that a service animal?
2. What task does it perform?
We won’t know until late in the month when the Philharmonic plays Beethoven 9th what the hall really sounds like; at this point, there’s a lot of concerts with mixed amplified media and non-orchestra groups and Broadway stuff.
In fact, it’s a strategy on the Philharmonic’s part not to have a single night in which judgement is passed by critics and the public. They want to slowly introduce the hall to a wide swath of public with a wide swath of music, meanwhile adjusting the acoustics.
They learned their lessons from previous inaugural concerts that went badly, acoustic wise.
It’s gorgeous. And sounds amazing.
Let’s just be grateful for every new or improved venue for classical music. And if the first thing you look for is confirmation of adherence to virus policy, that’s mind-blowing.
And, yes, it’s a cool idea to have a special concert for all who worked on the building!
All the whining below is just sad and so beside the point.
❤️❤️
No, because the money could have been spent on creating a new venue, or turning an established one with already great acoustics into their home, such as the Beacon Theater or the Manhattan Center. Major cities too-often have too few venues for classical music. In that respect, Philadelphia is a disaster.
Not a fan of the lighting rigs and bulb lights. Looks like a TV studio. Hopefully they are at least fully silent. Is that a provisional solution or final?
Better than the watford town hall in the UK
A nuanced review:
https://www.vulture.com/2022/10/new-geffen-hall-lincoln-center-acoustics-concert-philharmonic.html
Key quote: “I’m not ready to declare the hall a flop or a triumph.”
It is not a key quote. It was a professional response to the embargo on information before the official opening.
Nuance from a New York Times critic is like rubbing out the creases in aluminum foil.
At least Geffen received a total makeover. By contrast, the concert hall in Sydney’s Opera House building during the past 2-3 years was given just a revamp. Edo de Waart described the acoustics as much better. Various players of the Sydney Symphony have agreed. Regrettably, however, the sound is still – at best – very so-so.
It’s ugly. The opposite of inspiring. They still completely failed to use any decorative elements to disperse the soundwaves, plus, now you get to look at the stupefied expressions of audience members facing you. No wonder it will fail, again.