New hall plucks at her heart strings

WHAT the canary is to the coal mine, the harp might be to the symphony hall.

In Costa Mesa, Michelle Temple, one of the Pacific Symphony’s two harp players, is pleased to report that she no longer has to grasp hard for every musical breath.

In the orchestra’s old venue, Segerstrom Hall, plucking audible notes on a delicate-sounding instrument was no picnic, Temple says. “I started at mezzo forte, regardless of the printed dynamics of the score, and went up from there. The pull factor increased greatly. I had to use a lot of force to be heard.”

In the new Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, she’s discovered, after a month or so of rehearsal and two gala opening concerts, that an acoustical design tailored for symphonic music permits those dulcet tones harpists have been famed for since David soothed Saul.

“I was playing the real printed dynamics, and people like our principal trombone, on the far side of the stage, were saying, ‘I heard every note you played.’ ”

Best of all, the sound of her instrument, or lack thereof, no longer elicits the extra urging she’d become accustomed to from music director Carl St.Clair.

“No matter how hard I played, all I would hear from the conductor was, ‘More harp!’ And if I didn’t hear it I was shocked.” In the new digs, “he didn’t say to me on my entrance, ‘I need more harp there.’ So I guess everything’s OK.”

-- Mike Boehm