MUSIIKKI- JA KONGRESSITALO TURKUUN

Dear colleagues - I write as a member of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. We have recently opened our new concert hall (photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/114046723538625721409/FotoNyeStavangerKonserthus?authuser=0&feat=directlink ). The experience of - finally - an acoustic that our orchestra deserves is career-altering. Since the 1980's, the SSO has languished in a hall with a dead, hard acoustic - so bad that it has needed an audio system to help control the sound more uniformly across the hall. We have on stage been unable to experience sound from some other sections of the orchestra and way too much from others (notably the brass, for whom the hall has never been suitable). The woodwinds disappeared to the audience in certain seating areas. In short, the experience for the concert-goer was highly subjective to where one sat in the audience, but never entirely satisfactory. The contrast now could not be greater. Our acoustic is warm and live. The brass can finally play a normal volume without overshadowing the orchestra. We have a huge range of dynamics at our disposal - the hall somehow manages to make the strongest fortissimos and the quietest pianissimos vibrant and clear. We are all challenged and thrilled to be able to use our orchestra's sound potential, which til now we have only experienced on tour in other halls. For conductors this is heaven - that here is an acoustic where anything is possible. After only a month I cannot more strongly state what a fundamental difference to our orchestra this transformation has made. I hope the very best for our colleagues in Turku that they may get the same opportunity.