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Its taken a few months, but the New York Philharmonic finally sounds at home in its new home.
Silences were not the ragged dropouts they can be, but riveting instants of stopped time and held breath.
Before the renovation, the hall was notoriously murky.
Musicians struggled to hear each other, so getting the balance right was largely a matter of guesswork.
Orchestral colors tended toward shades of taupe.
Still, it was hard to distinguish the qualities of music-making from those of the hall.
In the renovated Geffen, the effect of all that collective vigor bordered on the assaultive.
Getting some distance from the stage helped.
I was in the rear of the upper balcony for Mozarts Piano Concerto No.
22, with Yefim Bronfman at the keyboard.
How a hall sounds is partly a stylistic choice.
Too much flattering resonance can turn much of that diversity to mush.
After the first weeks of the season, guest conductors started to arrive, and the music-making improved.
Geffen Hall, perhaps caught up in all the revolutionary enthusiasm, magnified every exaggeration.
He is almost the opposite of Van Zweden (a former concertmaster of the Concertgebouw).
