Sunday afternoon the Oregon Symphony played a run-out concert in the Pantages Theater in downtown Tacoma. The concert was presented by the Tacoma Philharmonic. It’s been quite a while since I’d been to downtown Tacoma, and it brought back a lot of memories of being at the Pantages for Tacoma Youth Symphony concerts, and later, Tacoma Symphony concerts. I wasn’t sure what to expect of the hall, as the last time we’d been to Tacoma was eight years ago, when James DePriest was still music director, and when the dry-ish acoustic laid bare the ensemble discrepancies in quite a ruthless fashion. I have to say, this return trip to Tacoma was a pleasant revelation. The acoustic was dry, but it was finally possible for every person on stage to hear what the other was doing. Finally, we were able to truly play as a great orchestra should: as chamber music, guided by the intentions of the conductor. This makes me doubly stoked for the Carnegie trip, as we’ll be in one of the world’s great halls, and we will be able to put on quite a show on the world stage. It also makes me doubly depressed about the conditions that we face on stage at the Schnitz. The sound is so murky and inconsistent for place to place on the stage that it makes real chamber music playing next to impossible, and we rely far too much on the conductor than we otherwise should. Oh, well – we do the best we can, and are thankful for our home and for our wonderful and supportive audiences.
