Carnival Center gives audience first listen

by Daniel Chang / The Miami Herald
August 21, 2006

First impressions have a lasting effect, so Sunday's rehearsal of the Cleveland Orchestra at the John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall in the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts served as an important introduction for nearly 1,000 members, sponsors and invited guests.

Their reaction was overwhelmingly positive -- ''I thought it was splendid,'' said state Sen. Gwen Margolis.

But the audience did more than listen. Their bodies also served as props, reflecting and absorbing the music and giving acousticians their first experience with the sonic effects of an audience. ''Tuning the House'' it was called.

The orchestra had been rehearsing in the hall since Friday, with only the musicians, center and orchestra administrators, and a team of acousticians in attendance, led by Russell Johnson.

Todd Brooks, a senior consultant with Johnson's firm, Artec, designers of the Knight Concert Hall's adjustable acoustics, was reluctant to give an opinion of the hall's sound quality on Sunday.

''It's hard to even judge yet,'' he said, noting that the true test of the hall's sonic success must be felt as well as heard.

Brooks said much remains to be done before acousticians complete their work, which could take as long as two years.

Last week's rehearsals allowed acousticians to fine-tune the hall expressly for the Cleveland Orchestra. But workers will continue to tune the 2,200-seat hall for the range of acoustic and amplified performances that begin with the Carnival Center's grand opening in October.

On Sunday, though, it was all about the Cleveland Orchestra, which will perform in the Knight Concert Hall three weeks a year through 2016, beginning in January.

The two-hour rehearsal transported the audience through a range of musical sounds and styles. Beginning with Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, the orchestra changed gears from the pianissimo of the opening woodwinds to the climactic fortissimo, during which the entire orchestra appeared to be playing at full force.

The orchestra also performed portions of Sergei Prokofiev's Suite from Romeo and Juliet and excerpts from Giuseppe Verdi's Falstaff.

Franz Welser-Möst, music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, said the group's Friday and Saturday rehearsals had allowed them to solve ''a funny echo'' caused by the hall's reverberation chambers -- the doors were open too wide. (On Sunday most of the doors were closed tight, with only a few on the upper levels open a tiny bit.) He was pleased with Sunday's results, comparing Miami's hall favorably with the orchestra's home in Cleveland, Severance Hall.

''I think it's going to be one of the great halls in the country,'' Welser-Möst concluded.

Welser-Möst said that perhaps the orchestra's horns rebound too harshly off the barrier encircling the rear of the stage. Then he added, ``These are tiny little things we can fix easily.''

At intermission, many in the audience were aglow with praise for the hall.

Parker Thomson is chairman of the Carnival Center Trust, which pushed for the creation of the center over the past 25 years. ''It's only the first day, but I can't be anything but very hopeful,'' he said. ``We're off to a great start.''

''This is world class,'' said George Foyo, South Florida market president for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, which, along with Total Bank, co-sponsored Sunday's rehearsal. Oscar Baisman of Miami said he was taken by the hall's ability to project a range of sounds.

''The sound is melodious. It's balanced. You can hear each instrument individually,'' Baisman said.

The arrangement of the seats and the building materials affect sound quality. So does the 130,000-pound canopy, which can be lowered and raised above the stage to direct sound; the 84 massive concrete doors, which can be opened and closed to control reverberation; and the heavy velour drapes, which can be deployed to deaden sound that reflects off the walls.

''From here on out will be the orchestra adjusting very subtly to a different repertoire, to a new audience, and continuing to adjust to the hall,'' said Gary Hanson, executive director of the Cleveland Orchestra.