Some call it a marvel. Others call it the best modern concert hall
ever built. But can this concert hall
withstand the test of time as other great concert halls before it? Walt Disney Concert Hall (WDCH) was opened by
the Los Angeles County Music Center on October 24, 2003. It is home to the world class orchestra, the
Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil). WDCH
was a dream realized with the help of Lillian Disney, the widow of Walt
Disney. So much planning went into this
magnificent hall that it took 16 years of planning to finally get the City of
Los Angeles, and its beloved orchestra a new home. The criteria I look for when evaluating a new
concert hall or an old one is its unique architecture and design, acoustics, and
aesthetic feel.
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| Walt Disney Concert Hall |
In
1987 Lillian Disney donated $50 million dollars to the LA Phil to jump start
their quest to secure a new home. With
this money the LA Phil was able to hire world renowned architect Frank Gehry to
draft a design that no other concert hall in the world would be able to
match. After much thought and numerous
sketches Gehry came up with a design so outrageous no one can see how an
orchestra would even fit in building with such a design. Gehry would submit his sketches to the LA
Phil and without hesitation the orchestra fell in love with Gehry’s design,
they knew that no other hall in the nation or the world would be able to match
the intensity it brought to the city and the intensity that matched the
orchestra as well.
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| Frank Gehry's initial sketch for the new Walt Disney Concert Hall |
With
its stainless steel curves and abstract shape, WDCH is a site to behold. No other building in Los Angeles or U.S. for
that matter can claim its splendor. With
a complete stainless steel outside one can only wonder what the inside has to
offer with this oddity. When you enter
the main doors off of Grand Avenue you are greeted with the same curves as the
outside. Nothing seems to be the same on
the inside just as foretold by the exterior.
Tall wooden branch like beams and flowered and patterned carpet you feel
like you are walking into a forest. A
surreal moment exists when you look around to see how resembles an imaginary
forest. With a massive lobby space with
a gift shop, restaurant, and a multi hundred seat lecture hall, and escalators,
it almost feels like you are entering a mall, but with much more
sophistication. Making your way around
the lobby you find plenty of things to occupy your time from eating to shopping
to a pre-concert lecture. Chimes sound
from above, the signal to start making your way to your seat.
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| Inside the lobby at Walt Disney Concert Hall |
In an article in The San Francisco Chronicle James
Sterngold had this to say, "I wanted it to be exuberant and exciting on
the inside, first," Gehry says about his new creation. (Sterngold
2003) Exuberant Gehry got right. When you enter the hall itself your breath is
immediately taken away. You stand in awe
of the multi leveled seating with stage specifically designed for the orchestra
itself. The entire hall is layered with
wood from top to bottom, including the organ pipes themselves. In honor of Lillian Disney and her generous
donation, the seats are covered in a floral arrangement pattern to give the
audience the perception that they are in a flower field. Large sail looking waves of wood protrude
from the ceiling giving the hall its continuity from outside exterior, to the
lobby, and now to the hall itself with its massive curves. Sitting there you wonder how can this sound
good, it does not look like any concert hall I have ever sat in before?
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| View of the magnificent stage inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall |
The acoustics were designed by Yasuhisa Toyota of the Nagata Acoustics
Corporation from Tokyo. Mark Swed wrote
this in an initial review of the hall for The
Los Angeles Times, “If those expectations are that a concert hall can
improve the world, who knows? Maybe. But if those expectations are better ones
— that a spectacular venue with vivid acoustics can make the experience of
music so immediate that sound seems to enter a listener's body not through just
the ears but through the eyes, through every pore in the skin — then, yes,
Disney Hall is everything and more than we might have hoped for. In this
enchanted space, music can take on meaningful new excitement even in an age
when many art forms are satisfied with oversaturated stimulation.” (Swed 2003) This speaks volumes and he says it much
better than I could ever about the wonderment of this place. The LA Phil can do no wrong in this hall, but
this hall make this orchestra sound and even play better than it ever has. WDCH has increased the stature of the good
orchestra into a great orchestra. Mark
Swed has this to say as well about the hall, “The organ's façade was designed
by architect Frank Gehry in consultation with organ consultant and sound
designer Manuel Rosales. Gehry wanted a
distinctive, unique design for the organ. He would submit design concepts to
Rosales, who would then provide feedback. Many of Gehry's early designs were
fanciful, but impractical: Rosales said in an interview with Timothy Mangan
of The Orange County Register,
"His [Gehry's] earliest input would have created very bizarre musical
results in the organ. Just as a taste, some of them would have had the console at
the top and pipes upside down. There was another in which the pipes were in
layers of arrays like fans. The pipes would have had to be made out of
materials that wouldn't work for pipes. We had our moments where we realized we
were not going anywhere. As the design became more practical for me, it also
became more boring for him." Then, Gehry came up with the curved wooden
pipe concept, "like a logjam kind of thing," says Rosales,
"turned sideways." This design turned out to be musically viable.”
(Swed 2003)
If
you have the chance of visiting Los Angeles, I implore you to take the time to
at least take the free tour of WDCH but if you really want to truly experience
the hall, buy a ticket and experience it for what it is really built for, music. To purchase a ticket or learn more about the
WDCH, visit their website at www.laphil.com.
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| A youth concert with a full audience at Walt Disney Concert Hall |
References:
WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL /
Resonating with the hopes of L.A. by: James Sterngold
taken off the internet from: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/WALT-DISNEY-CONCERT-HALL-Resonating-with-the-2553231.php#ixzz2JzvHK6Av
taken off the internet from: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/WALT-DISNEY-CONCERT-HALL-Resonating-with-the-2553231.php#ixzz2JzvHK6Av
A wonder of sound and magic by Mark
Swed taken from the internet from: http://www.latimes.com/cl-et-review24oct24,0,2993534.story
