1) Read the handouts: program notes, info on John Adams
2) Visit the Carnegie Hall website (see LINK) for info on the history of Carnegie Hall. (Under “The Basics” you will find Hall History, Rose Museum)
Concert night: Arrive at 6:45 p.m. Lecture at 7.
The Carnegie Hall Archivist Gino Francesconi (who we are meeting on Nov. 16) has suggested that you make note of the following when you visit Carnegie Hall for our concert Friday night: 1) the sounds, 2) the architecture 3) the location 4) the stage
How is Carnegie Hall different from other concert halls you have visited?
What strikes you first as soon as you enter the theater?
Usually, when I attend concerts, they feature works by more contemporary composers and musicians, and are at coffeehouses and large rock venues like the amphitheater at Jones Beach. Carnegie Hall is indoors.
Carnagie Hall is as large as many big rock venues, but in design reminds me of a orchestrata-pit-less show hall. I was struck instantly by the classical theme and the color scheme of red and gold. It was regal, and focused attention on the honored performers (and speaker).
Compared to smaller performance spaces, Carnegie Hall might seem stuffy and presumptuous, but I enjoyed being there.
The concert halls I’m used to are definitely more contemporary. They have spaces for seating as well as standing. The most recent one i went to, for example, was Best Buy Theatre in Time Square. It is dark and not well lighted, where as this one was an extremely well lighted and bright area. The theme of red and gold and white reminded me also of traditional almost ancient Greece. The details of the leaf patterns are completely different from the other concert venues that i have been to. But the biggest similarity is the theme really fits the type of music that plays in the concert hall. For example, the Best Buy Theatre is dark with neon lights and is a lot more focused on standing crowds and has a bar and buffet. The type of music they play is mostly rap and hip hop, which is a very upbeat and aggressive style of music that is meant to be danced to and standing to. Whereas Carnegie Hall is more traditional in that there is no concession stand, it is very bright and is very traditional colors and very quiet because it plays classical music, which is less aggressive and more meant to be sit down and analyzed and enjoyed. Also the way the show is set up is the same way. In other venues you usually have few groups of the same style there to warm you up and get you prepared for the music. But at Carnegie Hall they prepared you by giving you a lecture on the work that you were about to work. In a way they both are doing the same thing, which is that they are putting you in the right mind set for the piece. But they choose two different ways to do it.
The thing that i first noticed when i wlaked in the main room was the colors of the place. Everything was white and gold except for the chairs. The red chairs and aisles reminded me of old movie theatres. But the stage was really the thing that sticked out to me. It was so beautifully lit up and the ensemble of all those instruments and the sheer size and depth of the stage all fascinated me an as I sat in the top tier i kind of felt that we saw more of the show than the people in the first row. We got to see all dimensions of the players. We got to see every movement of every player and therefore saw how in sync they were. When the violins were playing, for example, they were all making the same exact movement, almost like a dance or a pattern of some sort. You also get to see the process of each player. For example, the drummer w got to see when he picks his sticks for what time, and if you’re in the front row i feel like you don’t get to experience all these layers and really just focus on what’s in the front, which is nice but isn’t the whole picture.
It was fun and i definetly would enjoy going again sometime