Uihlein’s amazing accidental acoustics
Gilbert Varga. Felix Broede photo courtesy of Intermusica.
The whole nutty tale of the acoustical shell hitting the stage at Marcus Center Uihlein Hall, the Milwaukee Symphony scrambling for a venue and the Marcus Center tech crew scrambling to devise a temporary fix got nuttier at Friday’s MSO matinee.
The MSO performed at Uihlein, with the organ box lifted to the stage, a temporary ceiling panel and two of the regular she ceiling components overhead and jerry-rigged plywood walls on either side. The orchestra came as far downstage as it could and still leave room for the piano. The set-up looked bad.
But the sound was incredible. I have never experienced such a brilliant orchestral sheen and intense presence in that hall. Acoustical consultants for the hall’s makeover in the mid-1990s told me that they had found that the shell, meant to reflect sound into the house, was in fact absorbing it. They clad the thing in tulipwood, and that helped. But it didn’t help as much as getting rid of it entirely.
The current set-up might work as a temporary fix for the rest of the season, but it is not a permanent solution. The MSO could never get its chorus or even an oversize Wagner orchestra on stage with the organ box raised. But the acoustical improvement wrought this week with plywood and chewing gum suggests that investing in the repair of the old shell might be a bad idea. I hope that Marcus Center and MSO officials will consider all the options.
But we wouldn’t care about acoustics if the orchestra weren’t playing, would we?
Varga, a frequent MSO guest, projects a natural elegance and joy in the making of music, which have a very salutary effect on the musicans. It came into play in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, especially, which both Varga and Gerstein read as primarily about Classical grace. The opening theme played out with an effortless sort of grandeur and the second with an easy flow and confident finish. Hearing these themes of the first movement, those of the dreamy Largo and even those of the speedy finale was like spending time with a great raconteur with impeccable manners and posture — very pleasurable and very engaging.
Yes, this is Beethoven and Beethoven will have his drama and outbursts, and they had their effect Friday. But Varga and Gerstein played up Beethoven’s considerable wit and charm above all. The takeaway, for me, from Gerstein’s playing was the giddy, multi-octave chromatic scales in the first movement, which he spun out like so many strands of silk, with each note distinct within a smooth and continuous flow.
Varga’s sense of fun with music permeated the Beethoven concerto and Steven Mackey’s Turn the Key. It begins with a surprise, which I won’t give away; but do be prepared to participate a little at the start. A rhythm defining the music’s 7/8 meter, heard at the outset, recurs often and holds the piece together. The piece has a light, free-floating quality. Repeating complexes of melody, rhythm and harmony, most of them vaguely inflected with Latin jazz, drift in and out and sometimes combine. The piece doesn’t really go anywhere, and that’s fine. To hear it is to enter an exotic sound world and stand in wonder and delight as its exotic creatures gambol about.
Ravel’s brilliant arrangement of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is the sort of big, splashy virtuoso piece in which the MSO excels. The orchestra excelled in it once again Friday. And in the new acoustic and given Varga’s beautiful and specific coloration of every phrase in the score, the pictures were especially compelling and vivid.
This program will be repeated at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $25-$95 at the MSO website, the MSO ticket line (414 291-7605) and the Marcus Center box office (414 273-7206).
Please drop by and say hello 11-2 Saturday, at the UWM Kenilworth Open Studio, Prospect and Kenilworth. Music, dance, theater and visual art going on, and it’s all free. The building alone is worth seeing. I’ll be set up at a table, representing TCD for the duration.
Well, it looks like we have an answer for the hall’s acoustic problem; but there are two Chorus-and-Orchestra concerts left on this season’s schedule. Something will have to be done before then, won’t it? Sounds like an emergency that only deep pockets can fix. Enjoyable review, Tom; thanks. Varga is always a pleasure!
What a coincidence that the first number this morning was explicitly written as an acoustical test! Steven MacKey wrote “Turn the Key” for the inaugural event at a new concert hall in Florida.
From a perch in left loge, the sound was generally fine. Brass and percussion were bright, but not too bright. Even when the orchestra was at full volume there was no sign of overload – although it has usually taken Mahler to create that effect. But I felt that the strings were weak and the piano likely sounded much better on the main floor with its own “shell” to aim the sound that way.
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Given the variation across this hall, how did others experience it?
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Varga took romantic license with Pictures at an Exhibition – which is fair. He milked each section, modifying dynamics and tempo to present his vision of the work. That was great fun, but so much energy had been released that by the end the climatic Great Gates did not have the same impact it usually does.
The sound seemed pretty good where I was sitting in the clarinet section. Plywood always seems to work wonders!
Interesting to hear audience perspectives on the sound; from where I sat on stage it was drier than normal, but easier to hear detail, which made playing together much easier. Trying to pick out the pulse in the roiling mass of sound in the regular shell is a challenge. From the front of the orchestra, the back sounds behind. From the back of the orchestra, the front sounds behind. In fact, it’s harder to get front/back and side to side lined up in our regular setup than in almost any other hall I’ve played in.
If memory serves, we have in the past occasionally used both choir and organ. It’s a squeeze, but it works.
Kudos to the folks at the Marcus Center who made this all work so well.
Thanks for commenting, everyone. I’m very curious to see how this plays out. — Tom