Debut of a Bright New Chamber Orchestra

The St. Peter's Chamber Orchestra's performance of Beethoven and Schubert last Saturday night was both beautiful to listen to and moving to witness. I very much enjoyed listening to professional musicians playing classical music in an intimate venue. I felt invited to engage in the music with the musicians in a way I have not felt in larger, grander venues.

Artisitc Director Paul Schrage gave a brief and informative pre-performance talk, breaking down the structure of the symphony. This also worked to create a connection and sense of accessibility for those of us who may be a bit daunted by the complexity and sheer creative power expressed by symphony.

The musicians as individuals were clearly engrossed in, what must be for them, a profound act of joy, and the musicians as "orchestra", worked with each other, playing off each other, aware that what they were creating was a whole so very much bigger than the sum of the parts.

I felt so lucky just to be there and wished the music would never end.

An amazing debut!

Thank you David for taking the time to attend our concert! We certainly hope that the audience enjoyed listening to the music as much as we enjoyed performing it and we hope that more community members will join us at our next concert and share in this wonderful music with us.
Sincerely,
A Dedicated SPCO member

You're welcome. That's what we reviewed this for - as part of our task of informing the community about the good music that occurs around us.

Now that SPCO is launched: Acoustics. Seriously.

To be honest, we were very surprised with the calibre of performers! We were not expecting such fine players. The moment they opened with Beethoven's first movement, we felt ecstatically engulfed with a very pure high vibration of sound! We don't hear this level of orchestral quality very often these days. Yes,there were some loose passages and occasional "clams" (wrong notes). But, considering the group only had TWO rehearsals, we feel they did a great job for the opening concert. We are confident the orchestra will only improve as the season progresses.

As a professional recording engineer, studio designer, and professor of music technology, I felt the acoustics of the room were pretty GOOD. The acoustics did not negatively detract from the magic, power and sublime details of the music. In fact, I have shared with colleagues what a treat it was to hear this ensemble of PURE acoustical sound. It is rare for a concert to have no trace of any electronic amplification whatsoever. Even the best microphones and speakers in the world color and distort the sound, and are incapable of reproducing the full bandwidth that only a pure acoustical orchestra can generate. Judging by Mr. Bratman's comments regarding the acoustics, perhaps he was sitting more towards the back of hall? Acoustics in rooms like this vary considerably depending on where one sits. Based on this knowledge, we chose to sit about halfway back from the stage, in the "sweet spot" of the church. Mr. Bratman is correct that some basic acoustical treatments could indeed improve the sound quality. However, slapping Persian rugs on the wall would be of little help! To correct and improve the frequency response, early reflections and reverb time, will require the addition of more SUBSTANTIAL structures designed to absorb and balance the acoustical properties of the venue. To do this right will require consulting professional acoustical design architects. (expensive!) If the orchestra continues to make St. Peter’s Episcopal Church it's home, perhaps the investment might be justified.

One simple solution: pack the house with more people! This will help absorb some of the acoustic artifacts and anomalies. Clearly this orchestra is deserving of a larger audience. We suggest investing in marketing first, acoustics later!

Whoever wrote the opening Welcome Message in the printed program, did a beautiful job and summarized what this listener experienced in the audience. "We want you to feel touched, like holding a newborn. We even want your heart to get broken, just to make it whole again. Ultimately, we want to create a connection with the collective humanity that exists in music, so you walk away feeling different...aware that you have just had an extraordinary experience." I would say: mission accomplished by the St. Peter’s Chamber Orchestra!

Mr Tambling -

This was the most severely over-bright hall I have heard an orchestral concert in, far more so than Stanford's Dinkelspiel, which is also not at its best with large ensembles. While Dinkelspiel, amphitheater-shaped, has bright and dead spots, this church, shoebox-shaped, should be more even. (That is why most of the best halls have that shape.) The over-brightness was such that sweet spots, size of audience, even my desperate suggestion of dampening the walls, could have little effect - like asking a driver speeding at 90 mph to slow down, and he slows down to 85. It helps, but not much.

I walked around the church while the players were rehearsing, as I often do in a hall new to me when I have the chance. The acoustical nature of the church was clear enough from that, and there was no significant difference anywhere in the seating area. Possibly standing in the foyer would have dampened the sound sufficiently, as that is under an overhang. (For the same reason the back of Dinkelspiel is the best area for a large orchestra concert, even as it's the poorest for chamber music.) I didn't try that, though. Perhaps I should have.

I spoke about this after the concert in conversations with both Maestro Schrage and the gentleman who introduced the concert. Perhaps they were being polite, but neither denied the acoustical problem. Instead, they emphasized the hall's other benefits, particularly the patronage of the church management which I mentioned in my review, and indicated hope to try acoustical adjustments later.

I hope they do. As I indicated in my review, for a new ensemble with minimal rehearsal, the music-making was promising. Now they need to consider acoustics.