LA Phil At Disney Hall
I used to attend a lot of concerts. Most of them were classical because I did so much live recording twenty years ago, but these days I don’t travel too far from home because of traffic, Charlie (the new puppy), and because I go to bed pretty early (and get up early). However, yesterday my wife and I attended a Saturday matinee concert by the Gustavo Dudamel and Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall. The catalyst was the world premiere of a new piece by composer Stephen Hartke. He teaches at USC and happens to be married to a friend of my wife. As a fan and supporter of contemporary music, I quickly agreed when my wife suggested that we go to the concert.
The program included compositions by Barber (Toccata Festiva), Scriabin (Sonata No. 4 arranged for Solo Organ by the soloist Cameron Carpenter), Saint-Saëns (Symphony No. 3 “Organ”), and Stephen Hartke’s Symphony No. 4. In spite of leaving almost an hour prior to the 2 pm start time, we arrived at Disney Hall about 20 minutes late thanks to a car that caught fire on the Santa Monica freeway. I had assured my wife that 45 minutes would be more than enough to traverse the 20 miles from the ocean to downtown LA…I was wrong. Thankfully, we arrived during the Scriabin and were ushered into the hall just prior to the Hartke…through two separate doors.
Mona had not purchased tickets when she first suggested the idea of attending the concert. On Friday, she made many valiant attempts to get tickets through the LA Phil website but she was having no luck for various technical reasons. When I tried from the studio, I managed to get on to the site and was surprised to see very few open seats. And they were outrageously expensive. Good seats were well over $200 each. I’m sorry but I just wasn’t going to spend that much on a concert by the LA Phil. When did concert tickets get so costly? I admit it’s been a while since I was a regular audience member, but charging hundreds of dollars for a single seat was surprising. I managed to secure a couple of individual seats in the back and to the side of the orchestra…and spent just less than $150. It should not be surprising that there were almost no young people in the crowd.
Disney Hall is an architectural and acoustic masterpiece. During the many years that it took to build the place, AIX Records was across the street at the Colburn School for Performing Arts making recording our 85 records. It was a real thrill to see the place emerge from the ground and finally get its beautiful aluminum skin. This is quite a place to experience a concert…especially when they program a concert involving the incredible 6134 pipes in the stunning pipe organ at the center of the hall.
I was seated behind the orchestra amongst the elderly (I don’t yet consider myself elderly…not if I can still run 10 miles which I did earlier that day) and had to climb into my seat from the aisle behind because of the woman next to me was completely incapable of standing or moving to let me by…and she got there first. I enjoyed the concert and was particularly impressed by Stephen Hartke’s new Symphony. It was long but held my interest by featuring the organ and a soprano. There were lots of complex textures, expressive harmonies, and interconnecting melodies that showed real imagination and craft.
For all of the beauty of the space and the magnificence of the music, I kept asking myself if the actual aural experience was worth the race from the beach to downtown, the $150 tickets, the strange sonic blend of hearing the orchestra from the back, and the distractions that naturally occur in any live setting. Or perhaps it would be “better” listening to a great high-resolution, surround recording of the program in the sanctuary of my studio. I suppose I shouldn’t be comparing them but I couldn’t help myself.
Even factoring in the fact that my wife looked lovely and we had a great dinner at the El Cholo restaurant following the concert, I think I still prefer listening to well-recorded music in 5.1 HD-Audio here at the studio. For sheer musical enjoyment, a live concert doesn’t do it for me anymore.
Not me, I see as much live stuff as I can, here in Philly as well as NYC, mostly jazz with some classical. However, I don’t have to deal with that awful LA traffic. I hate driving out there so I can understand!
Sounds more to me like the performance just didn’t justify the cost and hassles of attending to you.
Although our musical tastes are very different the experience we’ve had are similar.
I’ve walked away from concerts feeling the same on occasion, but there are nights when the emotional experience of seeing and hearing the live performance is priceless and could never be equaled at
In 1994 I saw Pink Floyd in quad surround at Soldier’s Field in Chicago and that WAS a priceless night.
Guess all I’m saying is if you pay $150 for a $50 performance you going to go home disappointed.
I wouldn’t say I was disappointed…the Saint Saëns was incredible. But I wasn’t overwhelmed by the sonics.
How was the Saint-Saens? I am a big fan of the piece, and I would have much, much liked to hear it live under Dudamel’s baton at the Disney Concert Hall.
It was really amazing…a really great piece of music.
I tend to agree with you. One of the few exceptions was Linda Edder , who performed in San Fransisco. The backup, the acoustics were incredible. My wife & I bought the Cd at the conclusion of the show. It was pleasant, but so lacking compared to the concert. Other live performances have been lesser than DVD or BluRay formats.
It’s a rare thing when the recordings is better than the live performance.
I think the last time I went to a concert I took my kids to a Rach 3 performance because 1) I like the music and 2) they both learn the piano. But I made sure we sat near the front so we could see the pianist’s hands. That was a great experience. I don’t think I would ever go a concert if I had to sit behind the orchestra, especially if there is also a soloist involved. I think a decent 5.1 system at home would be much better.
Funny that you mention the LA Phil, because I was just down in SoCal and saw them play a concert of Mozart’s 20th piano concerto and Beethoven’s third symphony. I was also impressed by the acoustics and I also sat in an odd place — to the left of the conductor and behind the first violins, etc, so that I could see Salonen’s face. I agree the balances were a little odd sitting beside the orchestra like that — the horns and drums were too loud.
I also checked out the LA Phil’s gift shop, hoping to score some hi-rez multichannel Blu-rays, DVDs, or Super Audio CDs of this great orchestra, but no dice — just a bunch of CDs, mostly 15 to 30 years old! What a waste that one of the world’s greatest orchestras playing in such a wonderful-sounding hall don’t produce recordings, not even on 35-year-old CD technology, much less a modern media like Blu-ray.
I used to be hooked into the LA Phil…but haven’t worked with them in a very long time. It might be interesting to reach out to them and see if they are planning any new projects. Unfortunately, they have their way of working and teams of engineers…so doing things a new way would most likely not happen.
“For sheer musical enjoyment, a live concert doesn’t do it for me anymore.”
I totally agree. I feel much more emotionally involved when listening to a recording at home than I do watching musicians perform in public.
It’s unfortunate that a live concert requires so much compromise.
Going to a concert is like traveling; it used to be alot of fun but now is a pain in the butt unless it’s a personally super-beloved artist for whom any sacrifice is worth it (Rolling Stones.) The deep musical saturation that occurs at home is often diluted by the crowd, etc. The emotional hit that the live show generates is caused by feeling the physical and mental energy the performers radiate, not the music or sound itself, as it is at home.