How to spoil good sound
by Zoli on 2022-05-11Massey Hall - TorontoRating: 3 out of 5Massey Hall's claim to fame was its excellent acoustics allowing great sound. This show spoiled it by over-amping and distorting what could have been a great experience. Instead of producing beautiful sound, what came through often was an abomination of noise, thanks to the sound manager and operator.
The Tenors are great. The band has excellent musicians. The choir was probably good, but couldn't tell, because they were drowned out by incompetent sound production. The pianist/band leader has no taste for good sound. The piano was played with the finesse of a gorilla. He drowned out the Tenors, his own soloist (esp. the trombone player), and pretty much spoiled the show. Mr. piano player: in good music, less is more. Mindless blaring and pounding has no place.
Admittedly, for some numbers, like Bohemian Rhapsody, the ffff volume worked. But not all the time!
Unfortunately, the best thing that could have happened towards great sound production would have been a power failure; then, one could have enjoyed the great, natural acoustics of Massey Hall.