Does David Geffen Hall deserve a maple leaf?
OrchestrasCBC Toronto claims that the modest northern neighbour is responsible for New York’s acoustic marvel:
There’s a Canadian signature on a beam of one of New York City’s most iconic buildings: the newly revamped David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, home to the New York Philharmonic.
Gary McCluskie, a principal architect with Toronto-based Diamond Schmitt Architects, can show you exactly where the signature is. He put it there himself in the final stages of a $550-million US renovation that his team helped complete before the hall reopened last October.
It was a moment of pride for McCluskie after a long journey that began with a call in 2016 asking the Canadian team to solve a notorious problem in the cultural heart of the United States — namely, one of its greatest concert halls had a reputation for terrible sound.
“The challenge of Geffen Hall was that the acoustic of the hall was never great, and it never matched the greatness of the orchestra,” McCluskie said.
The acoustics were so terrible that some started to call it a curse after two expensive renovations failed to fix the issue….
Read on here.
What dreadful hype. Does anyone without an axe to grind – led by Deborah Borda – think that this is a great hall in its current iteration, which was designed with light shows and pop events in mind? There are only a few great halls, and I think many people who pontificate about ‘perfect acoustics’ have never been in one.
May I offer two possibilities for ‘perfect acoustics’? One would be Boston’s Symphony Hall. The other was Carnegie Hall BEFORE they ‘cleaned’ it up. The sound was exceptionally excellent in both and still is in Boston.
As for the current iteration of Geffen Hall, I’ve been in it twice and have plans to return several more times. Unless I hear something truly different, I feel I must join those who are approving of the change but believe that for $500 million, Lincoln Center, the NY Phil, and others shoulda gotten more for their money.
It is better, but still not a great hall. It is exceedingly bright, to the point that basses are difficult to hear in the balconies, and violins often sound as if their arco is ponticello.
They may be fine tuning it still, but even if they got 75% of the way from bad hall to one of the world’s top halls, it still falls quite short.
This coming from a musician, agreeing with several past NY Phil players and a few current players.
Since the way that instruments are played and the acoustics around them may be prone to more subjective criteria, I don’t know if, by comparison, the vocal quality of voices is a more neutral gauge for judging sound:
Where Gustavo Dudamel currently conducts:
https://youtu.be/T4M24L8iR54
Where he will begin conducting in 2026:
https://youtu.be/BxtJXl1ygRo
“Acoustic marvel”?
I can’t think of any critic who has offered unqualified praise. The best reviews seem to give it a B, and there have been negative reviews from notable critics, including from Alex Ross.
I was reading critiques from 1976 when the current David Geffen was Avery Fisher (a name I miss, btw) and had its interior totally rebuilt. Or a 1970s version of what was done recently. I noticed some key observers and critics at the time gave the remodeled venue positive marks. Which is why opinions are very prone to politics, kneejerk reactions or personal agendas.
Exactly! . . . and so are so many other judgements that are made by arm chair know-it-alls at SD.
I’ve been to the new Geffen twice and I’m underwhelmed. But I still need to hear more because it’s hard to tell if it’s the orchestra or the hall. I notice a distinct lack of mid-range frequency. The french horns are typically buried and the trumpets are piercingly loud. Winds seem to come through well but bass and timpani seem distant. I couldn’t hear the piccolo cutting through the loudest moments in Le Sacre… the piccolo!! I couldn’t hear the horn rips in Sacre either. Are the trumpets simply playing too loud? Is the orchestra still playing like they’re in the old hall?
And then to nitpick, the dumb light show at the top of concerts: one of the bulbs was already malfunctioning and stuck on the ceiling. Embarrassing. All it does is generate audience laughter and “this is what they paid for?” vibes.
I’m not at all trying to dispute your observations. I want to simply point out that one piccolo can cut right through a very dense musical texture. Hence, the use of piccolo in the ‘out chorus’ of J.P. Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever” March. Also, you can hear how the piccolo can cut through steel in the Rondo-Burlesque movement of Mahler’s 9th Symphony. As for the trumpets, the American park band variety can be very bright sounding, and can easily bury most everything else (intentionally or otherwise). In my opinion – and it’s only an opinion – it’s up to the conductor to reseat them farther to the side – making the horns more ‘front and center’ in the process – or ask them to play on the ‘darker’ sounding German rotary valve trumpets. American players are already using the German variety – whether voluntarily, or asked to do so – for Austro/German works ranging from Bach to Bruckner. Sometimes they will even use them on Mahler, but that’s still a bit rare in the U.S. As for “The Rite of Spring”, just know that the top trumpet parts are very, very demanding. A certain tolerance and leniency is necessary in that work. If you get to the end with everyone still intact, you’ve done alright.
Both times I attended concerts at the renovated Geffen Hall were in December and in both, the NY Phil performed Shostakovich works and others which have substantial piccolo parts. The piccolo parts did indeed jump out from the orchestra. So much so that I decided that whenever the next time is that they play ‘The Stars and Stripes Forever’, they won’t need to double or triple the piccolos as they are wont to do since one will suffice nicely. More than one piccolo would/could be earsplittingly loud. It is the basses that I do find lacking in the redone hall; otherwise it is very, very bright.