SONIC BLOOM INTIMATE ACOUSTICS OF DISNEY HALL PRESENTS CHALLENGES TO MUSICIANS, AUDIENCES ALIKE.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer

If a first violinist drops her score at the city's fine-tuned new concert hall, you'll hear it flutter to the floor. The potential for other unplanned fortissimos from audience members and the ensembles that have taken up residency at Walt Disney Concert Hall illustrate the challenges of a venue in which acoustics is focused to the highest degree.

Musicians who've rehearsed there in the weeks leading up to Thursday's long-awaited inaugural concert say they're hearing some instruments clearly for the first time, despite years of playing next to them at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Considering the tightly calibrated sound at the new venue, an adjustment period may be needed - and that also applies to Los Angeles' notoriously restless audiences.

L.A. Philharmonic music director Esa-Pekka Salonen jokingly warns that Disney Hall's sonics are so good, cell phone rings will be immediately traced back to their original source - from the podium.

Although just across the street, the resonant fir-lined hall might as well be light-years from the Chandler Pavilion, the symphony's previous home of 30 years. Disney Hall's concert platform, created exclusively for orchestra and chorus, is about a third of the size of the Chandler's sprawling stage. Since it opened in 1964, the Pavilion has hosted opera, dance, musical theater, movie screenings and no fewer than 25 Academy Awards ceremonies.

Due to its soft cedar floors, hardwood interior and fabrics that suggest billowing sound waves, the Disney main room has exceedingly vibrant characteristics, and extraneous noise may come across as clearly as music. Musicians expressed delight in the warmly balanced sound, as well as slight wariness about being surrounded on all sides by audience members, and unease about potential ``1812 Overtures'' coming at them from etiquette-challenged seat holders.

``I suddenly heard the bassoons in a new light,'' said violinist Edie Markman, now in her 25th season with the L.A. Philharmonic. ``The hall is vibrant and alive in the best sense of the words. It brings out the most beautiful timbre. The Chandler was kind of muddled. You could kind of hide in the sound. But here, you have to adjust your skills immediately. There's no place to hide.''

Grant Gershon, music director of the 120-voice Los Angeles Master Chorale, which shares residency of the hall with the L.A. Phil, said the new venue's combination of warmth and clarity is unusual. ``In my experience, you get one or the other,'' he said. ``You lose detail or you lose warmth. Here you have both, and a very clear reverberation.''

During one of the symphony's Disney Hall test drives over the summer, the ensemble ran through a potpourri of pieces in various combinations, including Charles Ives' ``The Unanswered Question,'' considered one of the softest numbers ever written, and Stravinsky's ``The Rite of Spring,'' among the loudest.

``From the first note, we found we could play lighter, that the sound shimmered,'' said Meredith Snow, a violist with the L.A. Philharmonic for 18 years. ``It's a clean, honest sound with a beautiful finish. You hear everything.''

Adds L.A. Phil violinist Mitchell Newman: ``It's going to be a much more physical experience for audience and orchestra. This is what we get in Europe when we play smaller halls - a physical connection to the audience. You're closer, and the music is right there with little separation. You can tell the music is reaching people personally.''

That's because at Disney Hall, seating envelopes the stage and spills out over several tiers. With about 1,000 fewer seats than the Chandler Pavilion, now the domain of the L.A. Opera, the 2,265-seat Disney Hall auditorium offers an almost touchy-feely approach to the concert experience.

``The people will be so close they're almost breathing down my neck,'' Snow said. ``It's a little unnerving.''

Gershon said he welcomes seating on all sides. ``I love the sense of community it engenders for us as singers where the communication is with our face and body language,'' he said.

Proximity aside, audiences and musicians will have to ease into architect Frank Gehry's sensual new space to avoid the raised eyebrows and heightened blood pressure potentially caused by unwelcome intrusions such as feet loudly keeping time, lozenges being unwrapped or persistent dry coughing. Or, even worse, the ceaseless chattering that seems to accompany any public performance - even religious services.

``Unforgiving acoustics go both ways,'' said recording artist Juliana Gondek, currently head of the Voice and Opera Studies area at UCLA. ``The audience will have to adjust to silence.''

Some said they hoped the new hall will encourage Los Angeles' sometimes less-considerate element to develop a little old-fashioned concert etiquette. But Gershon says that's already been taking place.

``There's actually been a gradual enlightening of the audience,'' he said. ``It's always been the rap that downtown audiences are less mannered than New York, but I find it to be just the opposite.''

Architect Gehry and sound guru Yasuhisa Toyota collaborated to develop the room's complex sonic properties, which are largely fixed into place. The Chandler Pavilion, like other halls throughout the country, uses adjustable acoustic panels. Since most classical works are performed on unamplified instruments and sung by natural voices, venue acoustics plays a major role in finishing the sound.

``All the concert halls in the world that are considered really excellent have no such adjustable elements,'' Toyota said, explaining that a grille behind the concert platform hides some material that can be manipulated. ``Also, we introduced the electronic orchestra risers. We can easily change the height of the orchestral layout (which can be crucial to the sound).''

The inaugural galas are programmed to demonstrate the acoustic range of the hall. Thursday's ``Sonic L.A.'' has Salonen, jazz thrush Dianne Reeves, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale in an evening that moves from a single unaccompanied voice to Stravinsky. Friday's ``Living L.A.'' is a mix of adventurous modern pieces conducted by Salonen with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Tracy Silverman on electric violin. Saturday's ``Soundstage L.A.'' pays homage to Hollywood's dream factory with orchestral pieces by renowned film composers Bernard Herrmann, Elmer Bernstein, Miklos Rozsaand others, plus songs made famous in the movies.

``This is a series designed to make the audience aware of the space they're sitting in,'' said Joshua Kosman, classical music critic at the San Francisco Chronicle, adding that he was particularly enthused about Friday's program, which represents ``a very clear vote of confidence for recent or new music.''

Disney Hall's first season also takes in a jazz, baroque and world-music series, visiting orchestras and soloists, and festivals exploring interconnecting themes. It will be a period during which musicians, audiences and the warm, curved wood-paneled auditorium itself will have to adapt.

``The orchestra has been given a beautiful instrument,'' Newman said, ``and we need to learn about each other.''

Fred Shuster, [phone]

fred.shuster(at)dailynews.com

Ticket, schedule info

For the complete schedule and to order tickets for Disney Hall events, call [phone] or visit laphil.com. You can also order by fax at [phone] or by mail by writing Los Angeles Philharmonic, 151 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90012-3034.

Tickets can be purchased at the Disney Hall box office noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

A limited number of $10 rush tickets for seniors and full-time students may be available at ticket windows two hours prior to performance.

Also, public radio KCRW-FM (89.9) is marking the opening of Disney Hall with a series of programs, including live broadcasts of the three inaugural galas, beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday.

One the calendar

Here are plans for opening week and beyond:

Monday: Ribbon-cutting at First Street and Grand Avenue; 9 a.m. ceremony with the mayor and architect in attendance. Closed to the public.

Thursday: The first of three sold-out opening galas. This one is titled ``Sonic L.A.,'' a black-tie event with Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, singer Dianne Reeves and the Los Angeles Master Chorale showing the range of the new hall, from a single unaccompanied voice to Stravinsky's ``The Rite of Spring.''

Friday: ``Living L.A.,'' an adventurous new-music program with Salonen and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Saturday: ``Soundstage L.A.,'' Salonen and composer John Williams conduct pieces celebrating Hollywood creativity.

Oct. 26: Recital series begins with pianist Evgeny Kissin.

Nov. 16: Matinee with the L.A. Philharmonic and pianist Emanuel Ax (first concert for which single seats are still available).

October 2004: Pipe organ's first use (currently being tuned).

Youth movements

The Los Angeles Philharmonic held a Disney Hall public preview Thursday, and reactions ranged from a barely controlled urge to climb the walls to wishing Snow White was singing there instead.

Not your usual response, but this was no ordinary premiere crowd. Seat- holders consisted of about 1,500 fifth-graders from throughout the city, including the San Fernando Valley, invited to be the first audience of Disney Hall's inaugural week.

An attentive throng in their best clothes required little shushing from teachers as the ensemble performed the world premiere of composer Tan Dun's intriguing ``Inventions for Paper Instruments and Orchestra,'' which utilized huge rolls of paper hung from the ceiling that were ruffled, shaken and beaten with mallets.

Afterward, several rows of 10- and 11-year-olds from Moffett Elementary School in Lennox voiced their feelings about the $274 million wood-paneled concert venue: ``It reminds me of Vegas,'' ``It's like that scene in 'Daredevil' ... I want to climb up to the top,'' ``I want a Disney character to sing,'' ``It's like a boat in here.''

The L.A. Phil also performed the youth concert staple ``Peter and the Wolf,'' conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and narrated by teen film actor Haley Joel Osment.

``This hall is about the future,'' Salonen said later. ``So it's fitting that the first concert had to be a children's concert.''

- F.S.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, 3 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Sound decisions

Disney Hall's resident musicians must deal with those pin-drop acoustics

(2) More than 1,500 schoolchildren from all over Los Angeles attended a sneak preview of Disney Hall Thursday and heard the L.A. Phil perform in its new home.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

(3) The L.A. Philharmonic rehearses at Disney Hall with music director Esa Pekka-Salonen at the baton. The first of three sold-out opening galas takes place Thursday night.

Box:

(1) Ticket, schedule info (see text)

(2) On the calendar (see text)

(3) Youth movements (see text)