Thank You, I.M. Pei, for the Meyerson Symphony Center

I'll never forget the first sounds I heard in the Meyerson Symphony Center. It was the blazing hot beginning of September 1989. Then the music critic of the Rochester, N.Y. Times-Union, I was part of an international contingent of music, architecture and travel writers at the opening of architect I.M. Pei's first — and ultimately only — symphony hall.Pei's death on May 16, at age 102, brings back those memories.The Dallas Symphony Orchestra was rehearsing for one of the Meyerson's inaugural concerts. It was one of the musicians' first chances to adjust to acoustics of a hall that could not have been more different from the previous home at Fair Park Music Hall. The atmosphere was tense.Much to the frustration of then-music director Eduardo Mata, the rehearsal was competing with loud pounding and drilling. Mere hours before the opening concert, audience seats still were being installed and other finishing touches applied.From one of the left-side balconies, even through the construction clatter, the musical sound was almost unimaginably rich and spacious. It was immediate in impact, but with a glorious glow of reverberation.Thirty years later, week after week, I still marvel at the acoustics of my favorite modern symphony hall — maybe my favorite of any age. The sound seems a physical, tactile presence in the room; one senses it moving around, expanding and exploring and inhabiting spaces both seen and unseen.  Continue reading...