How Dry I Am

My review of Sunday's classical concert of the Chamber Orchestra of Cascais and Oeiras (occo.pt) will be colored by dryness...of the acoustics at the community auditorium in the Lisbon suburb of Carnaxide. It's hard to truly evaluate an orchestra when they play in such an acoustically dry venue. How dry, you ask? Think the Atacama desert, Lake Powell in the US, or the dark comedian Anthony Jeselnik. In this venue, a robust timpani strike at the end of a movement decayed in about 0.01 femtoseconds. There was no resonance. Why is this a problem? For the audience, we hear no bloom from the strings or piano, and any ensemble imperfections are clearly audible...amplified, really. For the performers this can be terrifying, since you often cannot hear yourself or other sections on stage, and there is little or no "feedback" acoustically on your performance. Scary. 

This chamber orchestra (about 22 strings) seems technically accomplished and, like other Lisbon area ensembles, is very young. The conductor, Bulgarian Nikolay Lalov,  has a good sense of tempo and transitions, although he talked too much before the concert (15 minutes) and should include musical demonstrations if he is going to go on that long. The orchestra generally played well, but each of the three pieces on the concert was damaged by the acoustics. In the opening Mozart overture to "The Magic Flute" the wonderful opening sets of three ceremonial chords from brass sounded muffled, without any reverberation, an effect worsened by the very long pauses between the chords chosen by the conductor. The rapid string passages sounded clean and well articulated. The great Mozart C major piano concerto #21 K.467 with soloist E-Hyun Huttermann needed more flexibility, more give and take between soloist and orchestra. The pianist's rather stolid voicing of chords was worsened by the dryness, which made it very hard to hear the needed legato (smooth, connected) passages to best effect. The theme of the slow movement is an exemplar of why Mozart is perhaps the all-time great melodist (maybe along with Schubert and Paul McCartney). 

Very simple, very perfect. But the gorgeous sustained line was nearly impossible to project in this hall. My mind had to fill in the airspaces. 

The ending Haydn Symphony No. 94 in G major ("Surprise") was sprightly but suffered from several ensemble lapses, mostly when winds in the back entered or cut off simultaneously with strings in the front. I have a feeling that they could not hear each other. The conductor took a vigorous tempo in the finale which partly overcame the sonic issues and left me feeling upbeat. 

I'd love to hear this ambitious orchestra again (they play almost every week), but in a more resonant space like the Coach Hall in Belém that I described last week. They fill a repertory gap not well served by the larger Gulbenkian orchestra and serve a terrific mission, working alongside a music conservatory and youth program, and playing fine music for appreciative audiences in the towns west of Lisbon.