Toronto鈥檚 major concert hall celebrated its 30th anniversary this year and, to mark the occasion, Dundurn Press published , co-authored by John Terauds and yours truly.
The occasion might have been considerably less celebratory had the hall鈥檚 management and board of directors not decided, more than a decade ago, to spend millions of dollars on what was publically described as an 鈥渆nhancement project鈥 and what consisted primarily of a major acoustical renovation.
Sir Andrew Davis, music director of the 海角社区官网Symphony Orchestra at the time of the hall鈥檚 opening and one of the key figures calling for the renovation, is not alone in expressing satisfaction with the results, acknowledging that Arthur Erickson鈥檚 glass-sheathed pleasure palace at the corner of King and Simcoe Sts. may never be a great hall but is now 鈥渘ot just a good hall but a very good hall.鈥
The man whose New York-based firm presided over this renovation died in 2007 and his firm, , has been absorbed by another, but Russell Johnson will be remembered as the man whose philosophy was most crucial not only in the redesign of Toronto鈥檚 major hall but in the design of most important Canadian multipurpose and concert halls over the past half century.
Beginning with the and ending posthumously with the , new home of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Johnson fought tirelessly with architects to make their sight priorities serve his sound requirements.
At the beginning of his career, the task proved especially challenging. Acousticians in those days tended to be mere consultants to the architect. By the end, in many projects 鈥 his especially 鈥 architects were required to defer to the acoustical design.
That was theoretically the case with Roy Thomson Hall but, in practice, the powerful personality of Erickson clearly dominated that of the hall鈥檚 original acoustician, Theodore Schultz, and 海角社区官网wound up with a large, round concert hall, quite unlike its great 19th-century predecessors.
Johnson was a student of those predecessors and believed in the acoustical advantage of their smaller size and roughly shoebox shape.
Luck has enabled me to visit shoebox-like Artec halls on four continents and they do work. Among modern venues, my favourite large Canadian hall, Edmonton鈥檚 , is one of them. My favourite large European hall, the concert hall of (Culture and Convention Centre), is another.
As it happens, my favourite concert venue in Toronto, , bears the design of the superb Bob Essert, who cut his teeth as a member of the Artec team.
Earlier this month, during a warm-weather escape to Southern California, I took the opportunity to visit one of the major Artec halls new to me, the Cesar Pelli-designed in Costa Mesa.
Pelli, the architect of another late-Johnson hall, the much-admired Knight Concert Hall of Miami鈥檚 Adrienne Arsht Center, actually spoke in New York, and warmly, too, at the memorial for Johnson. Unlike some of his colleagues, he came to recognize that a master concert hall builder needs the guidance of a master acoustician.
I recognized a number of Johnson trademarks in Segerstrom Concert Hall, from the moveable canopy over the stage to the resonating chambers along the side walls, able to be opened or closed depending on the desired resonance. Johnson was a pioneer in the development of resonance flexibility, acknowledging that today鈥檚 halls have to serve a much broader repertoire than their 19th-century predecessors.
On this occasion, the doors to some of the side chambers were open, to serve the needs of a concert by Orange County鈥檚 Pacific Symphony conducted by Carl St. Clair.
It was a solid, bread and butter program (Glinka鈥檚 Overture to Russlan and Ludmilla, Tchaikovsky鈥檚 Piano Concerto No.1 in B-flat minor, with Joyce Yang as soloist, and Bartok鈥檚 Concerto for Orchestra) and the orchestra performed well, but what I especially appreciated was the sheer physical impact of its sound.
Segerstrom Hall seats several hundred people fewer than Roy Thomson Hall, and this fact, coupled with its more traditional shape, made it possible for the orchestra to pack a greater visceral punch: a significant advantage in an age so accustomed to the power of amplified sound.
What a pity so many venues on both sides of the international border 鈥 Roy Thomson Hall included 鈥 were built when box office receipts effectively trumped acoustics.
That has largely changed now. And Russell Johnson helped show the way.
To join the conversation set a first and last name in your user profile.
Sign in or register for free to join the Conversation