To the editor:
On Saturday, me and a friend, who is new to symphonic music, had the pleasure of attending the performance of Princeton University Orchestra in Richardson Auditorum.
I needn’t note the obvious, how talented the student members of this fine ensemble are. What is tragic is that a full size symphony orchestra’s sound cannot be contained in the small hall that Richardson Auditorum is. During this alluring concert, Bernstein’s Fancy Free was sonically acceptable, Séjourné’s Concerto for Marimba and String Orchestra was perfectly fitted to the hall’s acoustics, Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique (the main work of the concert) burst the hall’s limited acoustics and crashed on our ears.
I had the same experiences 15 years ago when I attended a performance of Mahler’s gargantuan Symphony 3 with the same wonderful orchestra in the same hall. Can’t PU proivide a more suitable venue for symphonic concerts?
Yoël L. Arbeitman, PhD
Trenton