Jeffrey Fishberger, M.D.
New York City

Improving the Acoustics in Fisher Hall

With regard to your article “Canarina Mines 50 Years of New York Philharmonic History” (Juilliard Journal, November 2010), the New York Philharmonic’s Rug Concerts, introduced in my second of 24 years in the orchestra by music director Pierre Boulez, did serve their intended purpose, i.e., to attract a younger audience that would be more receptive of Mr. Boulez’s contemporary repertoire than were the majority of our regular subscribers. It also resulted in another, potentially important, discovery: By placing part of the audience on the stage and as a result moving the orchestra in front of it, the problematic acoustics of the hall improved tremendously. Not only could the sound of the orchestra be heard in its full glory everywhere in the hall but, as if by a miracle, we could hear each other as well. Several of my colleagues, myself included, tried to convince the management to consider placing seats behind the orchestra but our proposal was rejected outright. It took 35 years before the orchestra, at a Mostly Mozart concert, was moved off the stage to where we had played in ’73. As a result, plans to implement our suggestion, at long last, were announced in the press. Yet, for some mysterious reason, work on Tully Hall, “modernizing” the corner of 65th Street and Broadway, and digging a tunnel for the limos taking patrons to the Met took precedence over fixing Avery Fisher Hall, and eventually Lincoln Center abandoned the plan altogether, replacing it with some kind of interior redecoration. Meanwhile, from some parts of the hall, our magnificent orchestra still sounds as if it has at most a dozen, instead of 38, violins.

Gabriel Banat (’50, violin)
New York Philharmonic member, 1970-93
Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.