I'm in there all the time, at least 1x per week, sometimes more depending on dress rehearsals and multiple nights. We just did a concert opera in Perelman Theater (it airs this Sunday) and one of my main clients is the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, also performing there this weekend - dress on Sat., concerts Sunday and Monday; Joseph Silverman is guest violinist & conductor.
George does the Phila O in Verizon Hall and I see him a lot; a great, terrific guy. (His humor cracks me up whenever I run into him.) We've both rolled with the punches with Verizon (him moreso than I - I'm in Perelman much more often, while he's got a booth/room in Verizon for the Orch.).
Verizon is much nicer than the early nervous critics were bitching about; it's got a lovely texture to record in, but in the final analysis, not a whole lot better (or worse) than the Academy of Music, just different, and it varies wildly depending on where you sit. I've done St. Olaf's Choir in there (for a broadcast), as well as various other Choral and Orchestral Groups, and again the Chamber Orch of PHila. when they play in there. It's a great place, and the inside joke is that the CHEAP seats up on the 2nd & 3rd tiers sound the best! :twisted: . (Pics are on my website under current events if you want to see more...) They can alter the resonance of the hall with a series of panels that swing in and out, closing up or opening resonant chambers up and around the shoulders of the staging area. (The hall itself is like the insides of a giant cello - the stage area near the top, or "Shoulders" of the cello.) It's all under computer control, and they've been working with it since the day it opened, generating presets and getting more adept with it as time goes by, during rehearsals and sound checks. (email me privately about Russell Johnson and co.)
Again, the critics have not nec. been real kind to it (because it wasn't "Perfect" right out of the box), but it works nicely in general (I've have nothing but excellent results so far), and people are still flocking to the place, even after it's novelty has worn off a bit. (Two separate concert halls, under a huge dome of arched glass, with a covered plaza connecting it all.) The overall boon to the arts smack dab in the middle of Center city (on what they are now calling "The Avenue of the Arts") is incaclulable. The Academy of Music - 2 blocks up the street - is in great shape, too (totally renovated over the years, and used constantly for Ballet, Opera and Broadway shows), and the Phila Orch is performing their 148 Anniversary Concert there this Saturday, if for no other reason than nostalgia.
Actually, there are many who never liked the sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra in there, claiming it was not a good place for a symphony orchestra, but it's arguably the very reason why/how the "Philadelphia Sound" developed. It is fundamentally an opera house, modelled/built after "La Scala" in Italy - which was no small reason why Muti had such a good time during his tenure here.
For me it's apples and oranges, they both have their place and usefulness. I'll admit that anything we ever did at the Academy of Music tended to 'Record itself" while the Kimmel, like any other modern, multifunction space tends to require a few extras (ambient mics highly recommended out in the house, for example), and the smaller hall like the Perelman theater can be VERY dry when set for the recital (small) side with a full house. (Nowhere to hide for the artist, either! ;-) )
I've revisited some of my older (analog & early digital) recordings from the Academy of Music, and said: "Wow, did we do THAT!?!?!" -they're that good. To be fair, the stuff from Kimmel is still too new, and I'm too close to it all. But happily, it means a lot of work for a lot people (musicians, union, ushers, etc.) and I for one am NOT complaining about the sound of either hall. I can easily work around any subjective limitations. (Never had a "bad" performance in there yet, due to acoustics, for example.)
I've done a solo piano recording with Christopher O'Reily ("From the Top") doing his "Radiohead" tribute show in Perelman, and the results were some of the best solo piano recordings we've done yet. (It's more close-mic'd and pop-flavored than a trad classical concert, but the Steinway they have - usually reserved for Perelman - is to DIE for....the thing practially records itself; it's gorgeous.)
Haven't done a solo recital in Verizon Hall yet, but I'm looking forward to that whenever it comes up.
