PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
May 20, 2002

N.Y. PHILHARMONIC FINDS A BIG SOUND
By Peter Dobrin

Five major orchestras have now tested the acoustics of Verizon Hall. Among them, only the New York Philharmonic has been able to create a sense of orchestral bigness - the kind of high impact the city should expect after spending $275 million-plus on a new orchestra venue.

It might have been dumb luck. Verizon has so many variables it sounds different almost every night, so it's hard to say whether tinkering with the acoustical baffles and chambers Friday night gave the Philharmonic a helping hand not extended to other orchestras so far. After all, this hall has been open a mere five months, and so it's a little early for a permanent setting (much less a final verdict on the hall's overall success).

But the ears do not lie, and with Kurt Masur on the podium as part of his farewell tour, the New Yorkers Friday filled the hall with nothing less than a pure sonic exhilaration. (Note to acoustician Russell Johnson: Do not use that quote out of context in your press materials.) It was not always a beautiful sound. The percussion timbres, for instance, sometimes grew severely tinny; the trumpets at their loudest had an unattractive edge. A great hall makes musicians sound better then they are, not worse. A great hall supports them. Verizon is not a great hall - at least, not at the moment.

But in this business of good news traveling slowly, the Philharmonic's reputation has not caught up with reality. Anyone who still thinks it ranks near the bottom of America's best orchestras needs to hear this virtuosic ensemble again. This is the third time I've heard the Philharmonic in two years (the other performances were with Riccardo Muti and Christoph Eschenbach), and the kind of sloppiness and deterioration that was apparent a decade ago is gone.

Of course, their calling cards for this visit were two works by two former leaders of the orchestra - Bernstein's Serenade with a strong though not thrilling Glenn Dicterow as soloist, and Mahler's high-impact Symphony No. 1. (All the other orchestras in Verizon this season, by the way, have also tried out Mahler, except the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which had no less a chance to blow the house down with Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique, and Israel, which chose big Strauss).

Masur, at the orchestra's helm since 1991, has wisely kept what was working in the orchestra, while breathing some refinement into the concept of ensemble. Longtime principal hornist Philip Myers, it seems, can belt out anything hard and high while never even chipping a note. He still sounds like a million bucks, only less in-your-face. The woodwinds are solid and nimble. And the strings play with a visceral edge-of-the-note reflex.

Philharmonic leaders have never been able to clearly communicate to a wide public what Masur has done for this orchestra - his particular talent, that is, which mixes a strong sense of tradition with supple and heartfelt expression. Above all, Masur made Mahler's score sing, making real music of every phrase. There's nothing radical or extremely personal in his statements, unless, in light of some other conductors on the scene, you consider that an extremely radical and personal statement in itself.