04/15/04

LC040415

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

Your backstage pass to the world's newest musical marvel. We'll
find out why so many people have so much riding on a place that
almost didn't get built. Join us now for a special behind-the-
scenes tour of Los Angeles's newest landmark as Life and Times
goes inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

Val>> Hello, I'm Val Zavala. It's been a long time coming, but
even a brief glimpse of the Walt Disney Concert Hall tells you
it was worth the wait. Rising up from Bunker Hill, it's
designed to be both a gateway to downtown Los Angeles and a
landmark recognized around the world. Tonight we take you
inside Frank Gehry's masterpiece and we'll see how this home to
culture and music is bound to become one of Los Angeles's grand
gathering places. But first a look at how we got here, the
birth of the Walt Disney Concert Hall set to the music of the
Los Angeles Philharmonic.

[Film Clip]

Val>> You could talk forever about how this place looks from
the outside. Those sweeping curves and stainless steel skin are
hard to miss. Frank Gehry says the shapes were inspired by
sails, the kind you see flying from the mast of a ship at sea,
but the exterior is only half the story. The Walt Disney
Concert Hall also had to be an acoustical jewel and, as Saul
Gonzalez tells us, that's the challenge. To design a building
that is as pleasing to the ear as it is to the eye.

Saul Gonzalez>> If the Walt Disney Concert Hall has a soul,
then this is where it dwells, the landmark building's warm and
inviting main auditorium. It's a chamber that people
responsible for this venue say is an acoustic triumph, a place
that would make Mozart, Bach and Beethoven proud.

Deborah Borda>> Is this the best concert hall in the world?
Could be. It could be.

Saul Gonzalez>> The Los Angeles Philharmonic's executive
director, Deborah Borda, promises visitors a sublime musical
experience within Disney Hall. Audiences, she says, won't just
listen to the music here. They'll be immersed in it.

Deborah Borda>> They will live in the music when they come here
and that's part of how we say this is living music. You will
physically be affected in a way that I don't know if there's
another place in the world that has quite this visceral intense
quality sound.

Saul Gonzalez>> Architect Frank Gehry, Disney Hall's creator,
says that, as a music lover, he's delighted with the fruits of
his labor here.

Frank Gehry>> And it's something I worked hard on, to make the
room feel intimate and warm and create a strong sense of
community with the orchestra. It's a joy to come in and listen
to music and hear it sound so well, so good. That's the payoff
for me.

Saul Gonzalez>> Music critics and musicians have long
complained about the Philharmonic's old home, the Dorothy
Chandler Pavilion. They honor its history, but say that its
mediocre acoustics muffled and muddied the full richness of an
orchestra.

Deborah Borda>> I always contend you never heard the Los
Angeles Philharmonic, the true Los Angeles Philharmonic, when
you've heard them in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Saul Gonzalez>> For Disney Hall's curvaceous wood-paneled
auditorium, Frank Gehry collaborated with Japanese acoustician,
Yasuhisa Toyota. Their ambition was to create a clean and crisp
sonic environment. To achieve that, the duo shaped ceiling and
wall surfaces that curve outward so sound would be reflected and
disbursed across the chamber, not absorbed by the building.
Architect and acoustician also designed a so-called vineyard
style auditorium in which seating encircles the stage, largely
erasing the border between audience member and performer.

Deborah Borda>> The music and the musicians are surrounded by
the audience, so it's not as if you're in two separate rooms.
You're all in one room. You're all in one experience.

Saul Gonzalez>> Los Angeles Philharmonic musicians who had been
practicing and fine-tuning their performances in Disney Hall
long before its grand opening say they're elated with their new
home.

Gloria Lum>> The first time I walked into this hall, I thought,
oh, my God. I loved the curves in it. I loved the fact that it
felt so immediate and I really felt like it was like sitting
inside of a cello.

Saul Gonzalez>> Cellist, Gloria Lum, rhapsodizes about the
place.

Gloria Lum>> Getting a new hall for an orchestra is like
getting a great instrument for a player. You know, you really
have to liken it to it because there are so many more things we
can do now in terms of hearing each other, in terms of ensemble,
in terms of the kinds of blending and the variation of sound in
dynamic and just color that we're able to make and hear and for
the audience to also hear that. I think it's a very different
sort of experience of like listening to your CD or something or
being in a hall where you don't hear the clarity and the colors.

Saul Gonzalez>> Of course, its Disney Hall's surreal exterior
with its swooping and swirling stainless steel curves which has
really captured the attention and acclaim of the city. Gehry
says his design is a profoundly personal statement, one which is
meant to celebrate chaos married to precision and push back the
frontiers of what's architecturally possible.

Frank Gehry>> I've developed a language of motion with inert
materials in architecture for myself. That's what I was trying
to do.

Saul Gonzalez>> In order to transform his first doodles and
drawings for Disney Hall into a finished building, Gehry and his
design team relied on three-dimensional computer modeling
programs used in the aerospace industry. Without the programs
to shape and model its surfaces, Gehry says it might have taken
years of computational trial and error to build Disney Hall's
complex geometries.

Frank Gehry>> When people saw the original models, they thought
it was just a bunch of broken crockery and I've been getting
just the opposite of that now. There are still some people
saying things like that, but I think over time it will be
accepted as a friendly member of the downtown and maybe be
something that people will want to bring their friends to see.

Saul Gonzalez>> The people behind Disney Hall say they've
created far more than an architectural and musical landmark.
They promise the building will become a cherished civic icon
giving this sprawling city home to a kaleidoscope of different
subcultures and communities something it desperately craves: a
sense of pride and place.

Deborah Borda>> This building has a magic about it. This
building is transformational. This building can be the linchpin
of giving a different life to the center of this city and indeed
to the entire area. People know about this. They're excited
about it and they're proud of it. In the end, as human beings,
don't we all need something that we believe in and that we're
proud of and that we feel good about?

Patt Morrison>> This is BP Hall. BP Hall is not a person. It
stands for British Petroleum Hall. This is the entry, the
foyer, of the concert hall. It's where you will come in when
you enter to come to a concert and perhaps listen to a little
music, a lecture, or have a cocktail. They're setting the
tables out now, but it's way too early for that sort of thing.
It's as acoustically perfect as the concert hall itself.

This is all Douglas Fir and it's designed to welcome not only
the visitors, but the musicians, the ensembles, the string
groups that may be able to play here even during the daytime
when it's open to the public and the sun comes streaming in as
it is now. Now beyond that is the Founder's Circle. This is
for people who are the big donors that helped to make this
possible. How much did you have to give to join the Founder's
Circle? If you have to ask, you can't afford it.

Val>> As we've mentioned, it took a long time to get the Disney
Concert Hall off the drawing board. Fourteen years of designs
and redesigns and several occasions when the project seemed
doomed, but here it stands, this architectural marvel. So how
did the concert hall go from an idea to an actual masterpiece
and how did its backers survive all the setbacks and near
disasters? Here's a look at the Walt Disney Concert Hall
timeline.

Philip Bruce>> When they all showed up in hardhats, it finally
started to sink in. Disney Hall wasn't just a pipe dream after
all. It was actually going to happen. This was the first big
walkthrough at the construction site and all the people that had
been there from the start turned out. People like Frank Gehry,
the architect who created the masterpiece of undulating steel.

Frank Gehry>> You know, in Bilbao, when I saw this structural
steel like this, I said, oh, my God, what have I done to these
poor people?

Philip Bruce>> But just a few years before this day, Frank
Gehry had cause to worry that Disney Hall might sink his career.

Gail Ikenthal>> There were a lot of times in a lot of years
when not only the musicians of the Los Angeles Philharmonic did
not think this would ever be completed, but the architect
himself was sure it was dead.

Philip Bruce>> Gail Ikenthal is a veteran journalist with KNX
and a voice for the Los Angeles Philharmonic on National Public
Radio. She remembers those troubled early days when the shining
icon on Bunker Hill seemed more like a black hole. Besides
being plagued by a litany of its own problems like bad
management and a dwindling bank account, Disney Hall was also a
victim of bad timing.

Gail Ikenthal>> It was really a combination of factors that
stalled the project. The recession, for one. What started out
as perhaps a $110 million dollar project started ballooning.
This was a time of the Los Angeles riots. It was a time of
tremendous conflict between the people who wanted to build this
hall and the rest of the city and county that saw the need for
money in other areas.

Philip Bruce>> By the mid-1990's, Lillian Disney's dream of a
great concert hall named for her late husband seemed lost. Her
money had been spent and there was nothing to show for it except
a parking lot.

Gail Ikenthal>> And that sat here. That was really depressing.
We had a parking lot and no concert hall.

Philip Bruce>> But then finally some daylight.

Richard Riordan>> "Today I'm proud to say that Los Angeles will
have the greatest music hall in the world, Disney Hall."

Philip Bruce>> Richard Riordan, then the mayor of Los Angeles,
tapped some of his wealthy friends, the so-called Billionaire's
Club that included philanthropist Eli Broad. Together, they,
along with city and county leaders, raised the money needed to
raise Disney Hall from the ashes. The payoff came on the day of
that first walkthrough when Lillian Disney's daughter said what
everyone else was thinking. You must have had moments where you
thought this wouldn't happen, that it was just not going to come
to pass.

>> Oh, there were moments like that and it was frustrating
because all my mother's money, you know, had been spent just
about and I thought this isn't right.

Philip Bruce>> But those dark memories and many more are now
all of it washed away in a shining light of a new landmark.

Patt Morrison>> This is the staircase that the song "Moon
River" built. This is the Henry Mancini family staircase. But
the amazing thing about this staircase and about the hall in the
midst of all the cool stainless steel and travertine marble is
this explosion of color. It comes from Lillian Disney's love of
flowers.

Here on the stairs and inside on the seats in the concert hall
you see this amazing burst of color, these tropical hot climate
florals, and inside with seats that isn't a regulated order of
blue, purple, green. It's a very random selection, just like
the pipe organ looks like an explosion in a lumber factory or a
pile of spilled matchstick potatoes. The colors here have
really brought together the sense of the design, underfoot and
around you.

Val>> Esa-Pekka Salonen is the undisputed master of the Disney
Concert Hall and, as conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic,
he's responsible for getting the best possible sound from a
collection of extraordinary musicians. Born in Finland and
trained in some of the great concert halls of Europe, Esa-Pekka
knows how a great concert hall can become part of a city's soul.
I talked with him about how his new musical home fits into the
landscape of Los Angeles. Now it's been said that the Los
Angeles Philharmonic is a great orchestra under the right
circumstances. Do you finally have the right circumstances?

Esa-Pekka Salonen>> I believe so. What's great in terms of a
great orchestra finally being able to play in a great hall,
there is quite a bit of adapting going on as we speak.
Obviously the orchestra over the years has developed certain
ways to cope with the acoustics of the previous concert hall.

Val>> Maybe some relearning to do?

Esa-Pekka Salonen>> Yes. Most of the tweaking of acoustics
actually happens here. We have done very little actual physical
change. Some little details, minute things, have been done, but
mostly the tweaking really happens psychologically. So it's our
sort of physical feedback, a loop, if you wish.

[Film Clip]

Esa-Pekka Salonen>> The musician plays a note and then hears
the note and then the way the note comes back to the musician
ears actually affects the way the next note is being played. It
takes some time to get used to the idea that this hall is
actually a friend. It's like a fantastically responsive
instrument and not some kind of almost like an enemy that we
have to fight against. It's a big psychological difference and
a delight as such.

Val>> Now you've had probably more involvement with a piece of
architecture than any other music conductor in the world. I
mean, you were literally hear from -- I remember seeing pictures
of you on the ground when it was just bare dirt and you were
saying this is where, you know, the conductor's podium is going
to be.

Esa-Pekka Salonen>> "I like this spot. Good choice."

Val>> What kind of experience has it been? Exhausting? Worth
it? Distracting? How would you characterize it?

Esa-Pekka Salonen>> Well, all these things. It has been all
these things. Also, I learned a lot, so it has been a fantastic
education. In fact, in the unlikely event of something like
this happening again in my life, I would be lot wiser
(laughter), but I don't think it's going to happen again. It
has been a difficult ride in many ways because of the delays and
because of the difficulties we ran into and the moments when I
was almost totally convinced that this is not going to happen.
Of course, public lives look at the faith and so on and so
forth.

But there was a moment when I thought that it's not going to
happen and I was trying to prepare myself for the next step.
What am I going to do with my own life if it becomes clear that
this is not going to happen? What's the point in trying to do
anything in this situation? When it became clear in 1996 that,
yes, it's moving on again, that sense of relief was incredible.
Actually, when I understood that it's going to happen finally,
that was the greatest emotional moment for me, i.e., something
that happened seven years ago already.

Val>> Tell us about that turning point because that was a
crucial turning point. What turned it around?

Esa-Pekka Salonen>> Well, all of a sudden there was civil
leadership for the fundraising campaign. Eli Broad and Mayor
Riordan together started very successfully raising funds. The
Philharmonic had a major success in Paris in the autumn of 1996.
We played a four-week residence and played all month of
Stravinsky's music. That became a national success and even
reported in Los Angeles in the Los Angeles Times.

Also at that point, Frank Gehry had become an international
superstar at the Bilbao. All of a sudden, the feeling in Los
Angeles changed. All these three things together somehow
created a change of climate.

Val>> It was just a constellation of changes.

Esa-Pekka Salonen>> I don't think that, as I said, if only one
of these things would have happened at the time, then I don't
think it would have had quite that effect, but it just happened
to be perfect timing and we were really lucky.

[Film Clip]

Val>> Now you are part of a long line of very distinguished
music directors. Nevertheless, you will be remembered as the
man who was music director at the time that Disney Hall opened.
Do you like being remembered for that?

Esa-Pekka Salonen>> (Laughter) Well, frankly, whatever it takes
to be remembered by somebody, that's fine. I have no problem
with this. Also, I've been thinking about this a lot actually,
that this is such a big event. It would be in anybody's
professional life, but in my life certainly, I think it's going
to be the major moment in terms of the sheer impact. At this
point in my life, it feels a bit funny to somehow accept the
idea that I'm going to peak next week (laughter) and that's it.

I mean, my consolation is that, okay, there are other kinds of
things, the sort of depth, the sort of artistic development that
goes into the depth rather than on the surface and so on and so
forth. This is something that obviously continues until the end
of one's life. But in terms of the exterior, what is the
biggest thing? It will be this. I'm pretty much convinced
about it.

Val>> Besides the Los Angeles Philharmonic, there's another
great musical company that calls Walt Disney Concert Hall its
home. That is the Los Angeles Master Chorale and, as Vicki
Curry tells us, they are taking up residence just as the Master
Chorale is celebrating its fortieth anniversary.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> As they take the stage at the new concert hall,
Los Angeles's Master Chorale might be tempted to ask, "Can you
hear me now?" Their music director, Grant Gershon, says he's
convinced the city has never really heard the chorale live up to
its potential, but Disney Hall could change all that.

Grant Gershon>> I've felt for quite some time that this is one
of the world's great chorale ensembles and now I think it will
be clear to the rest of the world as well. They can actually
hear what it is that we do and the energy and the passion as
well as the artistry that these singers bring to all their
performances.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> The group was founded in 1964, the same year the
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion opened. Their entire existence has
been spent performing in a space that was designed for
everything from the symphony to the ballet and, in that mix, the
Chandler's acoustics often fell flat. So what we've been
hearing about the Philharmonic applies as well to the Master
Chorale in terms of the acoustics at the Dorothy Chandler not
being really agreeable?

Grant Gershon>> Yes. I dare say, it actually to my mind
applies to us even more because, at the Dorothy Chandler
Pavilion, we were stuck at the very back of the stage and we
often felt like we were, you know, two football fields away from
our closest audience members. So here, to have everybody in the
same room as we are, is extraordinarily different for us.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> The acoustics at Disney Hall represent a quantum
leap from what the chorale has been used to and, fortunately,
the hall is just as friendly to vocal performers as it is to the
orchestra. Grant Gershon says that's not always the case.

Grant Gershon>> Sometimes a hall that's wonderful for an
orchestra will be too dry, for instance, for singers. This
hall, I find quite remarkable because it has an incredible
transparency to it and, at the same time, a warmth and a
resonance to it that really creates a great blossom to the
sound. Usually you get one or the other.

[Film Clip]

Grant Gershon>> We can explore the quieter, more intimate range
of dynamics that were difficult in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
and here a whisper just carries through the whole building. So
when you can explore that range of it, it opens up a world of
possibilities then in the big climaxes as well. Your whole
scale is vast.

[Film Clip]

Vicki Curry>> The Los Angeles Master Chorale is known for its
range of programming and for commissioning new choral works.
Its first season at the Disney Concert Hall includes pieces by
Duke Ellington, Stephen Sondheim, and an opening night premiere
by Bobby McFerrin, but Grant Gershon is just as eager to perform
choral classics in this new space.

Grant Gershon>> I think, especially in the Dorothy Chandler
Pavilion, it was always a tough sit to do early music, to do
Renaissance and pre-Renaissance in choral music. Here, it's a
terrifically intimate hall and so that makes a great difference
for us.

Vicki Curry>> For the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Disney Hall
represents not only a new home, but a new sound. In some ways,
that in itself means a new beginning after forty years on stage.

Grant Gershon>> It feels to me like, in some ways, people have
never heard the Master Chorale really until they hear them in
this space. It's just remarkable for us.

Val>> Our behind-the-scenes tour is only half over. Still to
come, some faces and places that make Disney Hall truly special.
Until then, from all of us at Life and Times, thanks. We hope
to see you back here next time.

Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.