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Sunday, May 11, 2008
Opening Night at Encore Park
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Symphony is in the business of presenting concerts — its own orchestral shows and, increasingly, rock acts that generate the kind of money classical performances can’t match.
To that end, the ASO’s $35 million Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park, an outdoor pavilion in the northern suburb of Alpharetta, opened for business Saturday night. [For background articles, click here and here.]
Nostalgia rock bands dominate the summer calendar, but the ASO claimed the inaugural concert for itself, adding its world-supreme chorus, and then over-loading the evening with extras from a jazz trio to local high school marching bands to fireworks.
Somehow it worked, mostly. Low humidity and good spirits settled over the early-summer evening, and the 12,000-seat pavilion, it turns out, has good feng shui. Designed primarily by Minnesota’s KKE Architects, Encore Park’s vibe is pleasant and bright, the seats comfortable, the sightlines clear, the aisles wide, the crowd flow manageable, and parking a breeze. Cameras on stage and big screens above let us peer into the ensemble to see a flutist pucker up for a prominent solo or a triangle adding sparkle.
Opening night attendance was just a little over 7,300, however. Next week, a more revealing stress-test of the facility comes when veteran rockers the Eagles’ play four sold-out shows.
Encore Park was designed to meet several goals. It’s a new entertainment destination for a booming region. It’s available for community rentals, like high school graduations. It’s also, as ASO chief financial officer Don Fox has put it, part of the ASO’s “financial solution” against a $4.5 million debt and mostly flat ticket sales in Symphony Hall.
Concessions are a major part of any venue’s income. At Encore Park the food services are located to each side of the stage, in full view of the audience. Light smoke and the smell of grilled meat wafted across the crowd. Like Pavlov’s dog, I got very hungry. (My Angus beef burger was dry and the bun ice cold; the fries were flavorful and crispy.)
The amphitheater is also billed as the new home of the ASO’s summertime classical concerts, relocated from Symphony Hall. To gauge the acoustics, I sat on the main floor for the first half, switched to the upper seats for the second. The stage is so high, the amphitheater so expansive, that the musicians appear far away no matter where you sit.
But while spirits were high opening night, a essential ingredient — the sound — was boomy, out of balance, strident and unacceptable as a sonic norm. And ambient white noise, from multiple generators and the chatter of crowds on the lawn, drowned out the orchestra when the playing was quiet.
Almost everything can get a pass on a hectic opening night. Undoubtedly the sound engineers will learn to better cope with the demands of acoustic instruments. But the chance to attract new listeners to classical concerts will be lost if the music is distant and distorted and the best part of the evening is the ambiance.
Is this a surprise? The need to maximize revenue for heavily amplified rock shows comes at a cost to the sonic refinements required by an orchestra.
The first musical notes heard at the new venue — a ritornello by Monteverdi — came from the Milton High School Marching Band, followed by Robert Spano conducting the ASO in the National Anthem and then, mercifully, just nine minutes of speeches. Said Alpharetta Mayor Arthur Letchas: “This is a great night for the city of Alpharetta.”
American music by Bernstein, Copland and Gershwin (his “Rhapsody in Blue,” with the Marcus Roberts Trio improvising the solo piano part) filled the rest of the opening half.
Spano’s manic energy enlivened the “Ode to Joy” Finale from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and the orchestra played with commendable zest. Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” capped the evening. With the ASO joined by the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra and Milton and Alpharetta high schools marching bands, it made a tremendous and joyful noise.
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