At the recital tonight on Walt Disney Symphony Hall's gorgeous, modern pipe organ, as usual for any classical music performance in Los Angeles, the audience was comprised of young Asians and white, white-haired senior citizens. The perfect acoustics of the hall damped any potential echoes or reverberations. It was fun to see the huge panel shutters open and close as the organist controlled the dynamics. The performance -- well, the organist has a reputation as a great technician, so maybe I don't know anything, but this performance sounded to me consistently uneven in the tempo and muddy in the runs; however, there were two interesting pieces, one all footwork and the other by Philip Glass, the latter making fine use of diverse tones of the organ (botched by the organist's uneven tempos).
As the attendants quickly locked the place down, we exited the magnificent building in a hurry to the desolation of Grand Avenue. The most vibrant spot of life below the sweeping curves of Frank Gehry was a tour bus to fetch the senior citizens away.
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