When Bernard Haitink brought the London Symphony Orchestra to Avery Fisher in 2006 to explore Beethoven’s nine symphonies, the contrast was striking. The performance was crackling and powerful, confident yet spontaneous. The Maestro and his players seemed to delve into these sublime and sometimes bizarre scores for the first time. Forget monotonous environments and acoustic limitations.
I fully supported the decision to hire the young Alan Gilbert, who was appointed music director in 2009. Some critics and patrons found his playing of Beethoven uninspired. I really didn’t agree and I didn’t care. The orchestra became newly adventurous under his watch: at the end of the first season, in collaboration with seminal director Doug Fitch, Gilbert produced Ligeti’s modernist opera Le Grande Macable with a charming For staging, a featureless hall was transformed into a wonderful makeshift opera house. I totally forgot about the acoustics. The hall looked cool that night.
But it wasn’t. And so many nights churning through Bach’s choral works, animated Mozart symphonies, thumping Brahms concertos, crystal-clear Debussy scores, and more, made me restless in my seat.
Over the years, several major renovations have been attempted to correct the hall’s shortcomings. They weren’t radical enough. So reconfiguring the entire space and transforming the David Geffen Hall into a cozy, sonically vibrant home for America’s oldest orchestra was a thing of the past. When Borda was appointed president of the Philharmonic Orchestra in 2017, her second term leading the orchestra, she wiped out existing plans and made a fresh start. (She and Lincoln Center’s new president and CEO, Henry Her Tims, were able to speed up construction, aided by the pandemic-induced shutdowns, so they worked to make it happen. )
At a recent rehearsal in Geffen, she said her goal was to create “a hall with an intimate atmosphere.” The word “feeling” is important. After all, the new auditorium can accommodate her 2,200 concert-goers. But when I was in it, standing on the stage and looking out, I felt that the space was charmingly intimate. I felt
Critics have promised not to discuss the acoustics until after the concert begins, and while evaluations take time, I have to say I’m cautiously optimistic about what has been achieved.