In Tuesday’s (2/13) Seattle Weekly, Gavin Borchert writes, “The scene in the Benaroya Hall lobby, one Friday night last October, must have startled both those people who’d been to Seattle Symphony concerts before and those who hadn’t. It’s the first night of [untitled], the orchestra’s late-night contemporary-music series. Around 9:30 p.m., the crowd is gathering, not dispersing. Drinks in hand from the open-late cafes in the Hall’s Third Avenue atrium, a few concertgoers (those who feel most comfortable listening to classical music in neat rows) claim the folding chairs set up in front of a marked-off performance space, but the rest spill over onto the floor, up the stairs, to the balconies. … But when the music starts—abstruse, high-modernist—the buzz of anticipation changes completely, to rapt silence. … Concertgoers do relish informality—but not because silence is oppressive, because being allowed to chat and tweet during a performance is what today’s multitaskers crave, or because a casual atmosphere relieves you of the onerous burden of paying attention. It’s because informality enables deeper listening. … Just as you fidget less in comfortable clothes, the [untitled] audience was dead silent and laser-focused because of the unconventional setup, not despite it.”
Posted February 14, 2013
