wrote in message
oups.com...
Harry Lavo wrote:
Well, I've heard a fair number of good halls and have never heard one
better
(although Boston is as good, but "different"). But outside those two,
the
others have not measured up. I would write this off to my necessarily
limited exposure relative to the number of concert halls in the country,
much less the world...except that people (musicians) with much wider
exposure than I and whose opinions I trust feel the same way.
Even more so if you're basing your opinion on the opinion of others,
the following statement has been very much rule of thumb for a long
time:
"Symphony Hall in Boston, Massachusetts
is widely considered to be one of the two
or three finest concert halls in the world,
alongside Amsterdam's Concertgebouw
and Vienna's Grosser Musikvereinssaal."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_Hall,_Boston
Unlike the so-called Big 3, Carnegie is shaped more like a square box
(compared with a shoe box) and is a bit too large so that its
acoustical quality ends up compromised to a great enough degree,
meaning that its sound is dry and fuzzy enough to make it less
compelling.
I'm not sure about the "new" Carnegie....I was only in it when it was empty
and still had acknowledged "problems". But the old Carnegie was not
anything as you describe...a voice sung or spoken on stage could be heard
anywhere in the hall with startling carry and articulation. Music sounded
lively and dynamic when called for, with a wonderful sense of "rightness",
neither too ambient nor too dry.