Music Hall’s 2nd Chance at Glory : Symphony: Magnificent structure didn’t have the acoustics to impress. But a new, boxier shape should change that.

Davies Symphony Hall is a magnificent structure, a beautiful glass palace built to showcase the world’s most beautiful music.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way.

People flooded the $27-million hall when it opened in 1980. A second flood of criticism about the hall’s poor acoustics followed almost immediately.

This fall, the hall got a second chance to prove itself--at a cost of $10.25 million.

“There’s not a bad seat in this entire house,” renovation project director John Kieser said.

A new, boxier shape, which reduces the hall’s volume by 5% to 950,000 cubic feet, eliminates the “nasty back-wall slap echo,” Kieser said.

The acoustic purity should be enhanced by new side walls that were moved in 20 feet, new stage walls and riser, a new wall under the 9,235-pipe organ and 20 sound-friendly boxes at orchestra level.

“Instead of a hard echo slap, it makes it more of a sort of blended homogeneous sound,” he said.

A complex set of diffusers along the stage and rear walls bounce sound more evenly out from the stage and back to the orchestra.

Above the stage and terrace, 88 glass fiber panels backed with sand-filled steel tubes balance out musical reverberations.

The problems were serious.

The sounds from the string sections were often flat-sounding, and the horn section had to play delicately to keep from overpowering the strings.

“A lot of the times, you were fighting for your life. You were swamped and drowned out,” said concertmaster Raymond Kobler.

The original acousticians, believing that side walls weren’t essential for good acoustics, suggested a butterfly shape for the hall, according to symphony president Nancy Bechtle.

They were the same acousticians who designed the sound-troubled Avery Fisher Hall for the New York Philharmonic.

“I don’t think we knew what a disaster that was,” Bechtle said. “But it’s been proven, the shoe-box shape is what works.”

The hall lost 320 seats in the renovation, but Bechtle said that’s a small price to pay for quality acoustics.

“We really believe that with a hall as good as this, we’ll be selling out more,” Bechtle said, adding that some seats will cost more than last season to help offset the loss.

The seats behind the orchestra where the chorus sits will remain “the price of a movie,” $7 this season, she said.

Davies’ capacity will be 2,743 seats, which includes five additional seats in the chorus section, 30 new spaces for the disabled and 20 boxes holding a total of 138 seats at the orchestra level. The balcony level was untouched.

Returning to the hall are the cloth banners that had been used more during rehearsals than performances, and the hanging plexiglass platters.

Each of the 59 discs dangle from the ceiling and are computer-operated to help manipulate the sound for each performance.

Crews also replaced a ventilation system that produced “gale-force winds” on stage.

The hall’s looks also got a boost.

Dull pink rugs were replaced with regal maroon carpet, lounge seats were upholstered to match and a bar was added near the rear orchestra boxes.

The hall, named after Louise M. Davies, 92, opened in 1980 after she donated $5 million for the first down payment on the building.

Renovation funds were raised through private donations, with Gordon P. Getty contributing the initial $3 million.

Bechtle admitted that fund raising in the midst of a recession was tough, but noted that the symphony has been profitable for 14 years.

“People trust the symphony. They know we’re not squandering money,” Bechtle said. “The orchestra has reached such a high new level that it should be playing in a hall it deserves.”