Benaroya Hall / Opening Galas -- Fanfare For New Symphony Hall

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Opening Night Gala Concert, Benaroya Hall, Seattle, with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony, and soprano soloist Jessye Norman; S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium, Benaroya Hall, Saturday night. Opening Celebration of Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall, with Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony, yesterday.

The most momentous weekend in the 95-year history of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra has come and gone, in a frenzy of celebrating and toasting and concertizing - leaving behind a kaleidoscope of impressions for those lucky enough to be on hand for the grand opening of both the main 2,500-seat auditorium and the smaller 540-seat recital stage at the gleaming new Benaroya Hall.

The first impressions: the big hall is gorgeous to the eye and to the ear. The recital hall, a little more utilitarian in design, also delivers a big sound with abundant clarity, though there's still more to wish for in reverberance.

No matter how stunning the brass climaxes were in Saturday night's "Firebird," and no matter how well-delineated the orchestral sound in yesterday's all-Mozart program, the truth is we've barely glimpsed what both halls can do. How will both sound with, say, a piano recital, or a solo vocal evening, or string quartets or choruses or baroque music?

The next few weeks should be exciting, as those questions gradually get answered by a big lineup of performers.

After a rehearsal in the main hall about 10 days ago, Gerard Schwarz said, "This is the greatest hall I've ever conducted in, and I've been in some great halls." Schwarz's euphoria about the Benaroya mainstage was echoed not only by many of the 100 international critics who prowled the hall during Saturday's dress rehearsal, but also by most in the opening-night audience, who heard a pre-concert Henri Lazarof "Celebration for Four Brass Choirs," the world premiere of David Diamond's festive "A Gala Celebration," the lush string sounds of Webern's "Langsamer Satz" (in Schwarz's own arrangement), the Stravinsky "Firebird" Suite, and excerpts from Wagner's "Gotterdammerung," with the inimitable Jessye Norman as soprano soloist.

Saturday night was an epic occasion. The atmosphere of the excited crowd, in black-tie finery, awash in champagne bubbles, buzzing over every novelty and scurrying to unfamiliar seats in the elegant new hall, was heightened by the fact that the event was being broadcast live over KCTS-TV. Cameras and bright lights sprouted like high-tech mushrooms all over the house. There was that indefinable air of history being made, in a hall that still has the "new car" aroma of fresh paint and brand-new upholstery.

After the Lazarof fanfare drew the listeners into the house, after the the speeches and acknowledgments (and a huge standing ovation for the Benaroya family donors), Schwarz and the orchestra swung into "The Star-Spangled Banner."

And then there was the orchestra, just as Schwarz had promised - heard in a way it's never been heard in the Opera House. The hall delivers a tremendous volume of sound, but it also is well-defined sound, allowing the listener to "hear into" the orchestra as never before. There's a directional clarity that allows you to trace each sound to its source - which also means that there's no place to hide.

It would be nice to have just a touch more reverberation in the hall. I wouldn't want to sacrifice any of the clarity and presence, however, to achieve that end.

How well does the sound penetrate? You can stand at the back wall at the top of the third tier, and you can hear Schwarz's indrawn breath before a big downbeat. You also can hear a whisper all the way across the main floor.

On opening night, audience members jumped visibly at the opening fortissimo chords of the "Infernal Dance" section of "Firebird." It's easy to be blown away by the sheer magnitude of sound, especially in the Wagner, but equally impressive were the pianissimo strings at the end of the "Firebird" Berceuse, and the quiet nuances of the horn solo which followed.

Norman's arrival, just in time for the Immolation Scene in "Gotterdammerung", quickly laid to rest any question about vocal-soloist balances. Her big voice poured out to every corner, in an impassioned reading that was so dramatic that you almost expected her to light the podium on fire. Norman's apt encore was Wagner's "Dich, teure Halle" ("Thou beloved hall").

The next day, Schwarz assembled around 40 of the players for an afternoon of Mozart's three last symphonies (Nos. 39, 40 and 41) in the new recital hall. This is probably the biggest force the stage will accommodate, and the volume levels were at the outer limits, too: it's a very big sound that's well balanced throughout the hall (the back of the house is especially good).

This is a hall requiring careful attention to dynamics; long passages at loud volume can sound harsh and noisy. Particularly gratifying was the acoustic response from the back of the stage, where the wind players sit; they sounded wonderful in the Mozart symphonies. Details of interior voicing that are often lost in performance were fully present here.

The down side is a fairly quick decay; the hall is a little dry. Acoustician Cyril Harris and the sound crew have already done some tinkering with the reflective surfaces, and a bit more wouldn't hurt. This hall is a potential gem, with an army of eager players ready to mine it.