Arts Center: Fine-Tuning a New Hall Takes Time

It takes a while to tune a concert hall.

It takes a while for a conductor and an orchestra to become acquainted with all the inherent acoustical quirks. It takes a while for the musicians to learn how to hear each other, to gauge and balance their sonic output in strange surroundings.

Under the circumstances, it might be wise to regard the gala opening concert at Segerstrom Hall in the new Orange County Performing Arts Center as something akin to a very fancy rehearsal.

At first hearing, the new hall may not be the acoustical marvel one had hoped for.

It is handsome, and it is interesting in design. It can boast a remarkable aura of intimacy for a place that seats 3,000. The physical appointments, for the most part, suit comfort as well as luxury.

But never mind all that. The sound is the thing. Monday night it was an inconclusive thing.

If one can generalize, on the basis of early judgments, the hall seems to favor the brass and percussion at the expense of the strings and winds. It also seems kinder to small noises than to really big ones. In the final analysis, however, one doesn’t know how much to blame the house and how much to blame the music makers.

There is no question that the imbalances can be corrected. The house is resonant. The potential for clarity and presence seems strong. The awful phantom of the historical Lincoln Center has been kept safely at bay.

Still, some questions linger.

The inaugural concert began with the presumably obligatory speeches. The elegant first-nighters, who had paid up to $2,000 a seat, endured 15 minutes of welcoming rhetoric and self-congratulation.

They applauded a telegram from President Reagan--a president who has done very little to support the fine arts in the United States--and they applauded three speakers who lauded fund-raisers but found the names of the responsible architect and acousticians unworthy of mention. So much for aesthetic priorities.

Later, they applauded after each movement of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony as played by a rather ragged Los Angeles Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. So much for aesthetic sophistication.

The concert began with none less than Leontyne Price singing the National Anthem. The soprano’s lower registers sounded foggy; the top voice blossomed.

William Kraft’s “Of Ceremonies, Pageants and Celebrations” capitalized on sweet percussive sounds ringing from various parts of the hall. These eventually teased the big orchestra on the stage, then blended for some booming climaxes more noteworthy for power than definition.

The seven-minute overture turned out to be a nice, neat piece d’occasion , little more.

Aaron Copland’s ode to Americana, “Lincoln Portrait,” sounded bombastic as far as the orchestra was concerned. James Whitmore recited the text with deft homespun accents--accents that were distorted by microphones.

After intermission, Mehta returned to the heroic pathos of Beethoven and suggested that his perspective of the German master has changed little since he left Los Angeles in 1978. This was a tough, brisk, sometimes even brutal Ninth; a Ninth that benefited from force and some visceral excitement but lacked a good deal of majesty, poetry and sensitivity.

The strong solo quartet, which sounded bright and resonant at the front of the stage, included Samuel Ramey (bass), William Johns (tenor), Benita Vaente (soprano) and Katherine Ciesinski (mezzo-soprano).

Situated on risers at the rear of the stage, the combined Master Chorale of Orange County and the Pacific Chorale provided ample decibels (a chorus larger than 150 would create serious balance problems in a challenge like this one). The choirs did encounter some strain and some tightness, however.

Blame it on nerves, maybe on Beethoven.

Despite the obvious problems, this was in most of the important ways an auspicious beginning. Beginnings are never easy.