The Academy of Music
Saturday November 24 2007
A while back ago I speculated that one of the reasons why John de Lancie had such a different and piercing tone was the hall that he played in.
We all know that halls have a large effect upon our sound. Severance Hall had an effect on Mack’s tone which seemed to “fill in” the center of his tone. Avery Fisher was (not sure if they’ve changed it) considered by many musicians an acoustically drier hall. The Academy of Music was originally desired as an Opera House.
On my last trip down to visit Mr. Weber, he confirmed some of my suspicions; namely that it had a unique acoustic effect. Mr. Weber described the hall has having a “thick” feeling about it, so that players were forced to play “through the air” clear to the back of the hall. The stage itself was also unique as well, being laid out at a slight slope. One could drop a pencil from the brass section and it would roll clear to the front of the stage. Underneath the stage was also a storage area, which was covered over, and eventually filled in. Before it was filled in however, it resonated the sound of the orchestra upward and outward, functioning “like the bowl of a timpani” as Mr. Weber put it. Later, in an attempt to improve acoustics, they filled it in (this is confirmed by an acquaintance MF who recently wrote to me stating “The best were the orchestra rehearsals I got to attend. De Lancie used to change reeds about every five minutes in these, testing out their sound in the Academy of Music (before they killed the building’s acoustics by filling in the dry well below the parquet.)”). Apparently the effects did not have a positive effect upon it.
In any case, it is for these reasons that I expect Mr. de Lancie sounded as piercing as he did, and why the Philadelphia “lush string section” sounded as full as it did; they were trying to play “through” the air.
I would love to write Mr. Woodhams a letter and ask him the changes he made upon his reeds once he moved from the Academy of Music to the Kimmel Center (the new home of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 2001. One certainly hears a difference in sound from his old recordings of the Strauss and Brahms Symphonies (amongst others) and the newer stuff.
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