REVIEW : Poway Center Earns Pop Kudos : But Fails With Symphony

In the case of Poway’s new cultural center, what you see is more than what you get for a symphony performance. The expansive contours of its sleek exterior and capacious foyer do not prepare the first-time visitor for the cramped auditorium within.

Although the hall seats 800, the narrow room with its low ceiling feels claustrophobic contrasted with La Jolla’s 500-seat Sherwood Auditorium. And the Poway facility does not begin to measure up to the simple elegance and comfort of the East County Performing Arts Center in El Cajon, which seats 1,200.

Sunday afternoon, the San Diego Symphony ventured out to Poway’s new hall, which had been inaugurated the night before by pop star Melissa Manchester. Under Austrian guest conductor Hans Graf, the symphony played the same program of Sibelius, Webern and Mendelssohn that it gave last Thursday and Friday at Copley Symphony Hall.

Squeezing all 80 orchestra players onto the narrow Poway stage proved no mean feat, with the second row of bass players ending up practically in the wings. Occasionally, a glimpse of their busy bows could be seen around the edge of the stage proscenium. In the Webern “Six Pieces for Orchestra,” which called for added wind players, the unfortunate bass clarinetist was seated so close to the bass drums that he had to plug his ears occasionally to preserve his hearing.

Even the orchestra’s modest fortes overpowered the room. From a seat in the balcony, the violins sounded annoyingly bright, and the low strings--violas, cellos and basses--almost disappeared. The brass sections blasted uncomfortably, especially in certain exposed sections of the Webern. Only the mid-range woodwinds, featured in Mendelssohn’s Suite from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” sounded with appropriate balance and fidelity.

Downstairs on the main floor, there was a truer balance among the string sections--which meant that the contrabasses were indeed audible. In the opening movement of the Sibelius Second Symphony, one detected even a hint of warmth from the entire string ensemble, but the room’s overall sonic impression remained overly bright, thin, and clearly lacking in resonance.

Perhaps the acoustical engineers can do some fine tuning. At the moment, there is a minimum of carpeting on the poured concrete floors, and the ceiling’s hanging panels can be adjusted. In its current state, however, this hall is probably better suited for a chamber orchestra of 40 players than for a full symphony.