As part of a casual project to visit the great concert halls of North America, last week I went to Dallas to hear the DSO in the acoustically legendary Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, designed by I. M. Pei.
The concert was the first subscription event of the season, and featured the DSO's newly arrived music director, Jaap van Zweden. Emmanuel Ax played the Mozart concerto K. 503, and the concert finished with the Mahler Fifth.
I was seated in the eleventh row, dead center, and found the acoustics to be excellent. The violins just glow, and even in the loudest passages the sound is clear and undistorted. I will quibble with details in any Mahler performance, but I thought the conductor did a good job, and the orchestra played brilliantly.
The sound of this outstanding hall has been faithfully captured on numerous Dorian recordings, including the Mahler Fifth with Andrew Litton conducting.
Meanwhile, the CSO has just announced that van Zweden will substitute for Riccardo Chailly, who has canceled his upcoming Chicago appearances. I believe this will include the Bruckner Fifth next month.
Other venues on my wish list are Severance Hall in Cleveland, Symphony Hall in Boston, and, closer to home, Uihlein Hall in Milwaukee. I'd be delighted to read comments from anyone who has attended concerts at any of those.
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