December 15,1986, was supposed to be the triumphant
return of the world-famous Carnegie Hall.
For 30 weeks, the concert venue had undergone
a $50 million renovation.
-–I’m a member cellist of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra,
and I'm the principal cellist
of the American Ballet Theater Orchestra.
I play regularly at Carnegie.
It just looked fantastic
with the gold trim, and beautiful cream-colored plaster,
and the new seats.
You know that it really was reborn.
–The audience filled the seats,
and the musicians took the stage.
But when the orchestra began to play,
it was clear something wasn't right.
The rich, warm acoustic quality for which Carnegie Hall
was famous had been sharply distorted.
–It was apparent from opening night.
We all felt that there was something different—
a certain harshness, a certain hollowness to the sound—this brittle quality.
And it was really— it was a scandal.
–In the late 19th century, Andrew Carnegie,
titan of the American steel industry,
funded the construction of Carnegie Hall.
The state-of-the-art music venue opened its doors
on May 5, 1891, to much fanfare.
Carnegie Hall represents the pinnacle
of classical music in America.
It was a very simple geometric horseshoe shape developed in Europe,
and had a track record of creating a great sound.
–For almost 100 years, it stood as a bastion
of acoustic excellence.
But by 1986, the ceiling was leaking,
and the floorboards were in dire need of renovations.
–It had a certain worn-in look.
And you’d look up and you would see patches of paint
that needed a fresh touch.
–In May 1986, Carnegie closed its doors for the historic renovations.
The media documented the journey to restore
the concert hall to its original grandeur.
But not everyone was thrilled at the prospect
of major renovations.
–There's a lot of fear that when you change anything
that it's gonna affect the sound.
When you're talking about Carnegie Hall
and the sound that you feel is ideal,
any change can be for the worse.
–Carnegie officials assured skeptics that the renovations
would only benefit the pristine sound of the concert hall.
–So about a month after it opened,
I was invited to play as an extra cellist.
The sound that I knew of Carnegie from my earliest performances there
was not the same.
The sound was significantly different—
that it was much brighter, a little bit harsher,
and that the warmth of the bass sound was really absent.
–Though Carnegie officials initially denied that the renovations had changed the acoustic
quality of the hall, soon the cacophony of critical voices
was too loud to ignore.
And the hall's officials were left searching for answers.
–In the old days, apparently there was a hole in the ceiling—
which people said led to a reverberation chamber that fed back into the hall—
There was this big, kind of ornate curtain.
The curtains were taken down.
Something about the secret sauce of the old Carnegie
sound that included these curtains,
when they were taken away and the sound was brighter,
people were saying,
“Well, bring the curtains back. Put a hole in the ceiling.”
–A press conference was held announcing a decision
to experiment with strategically placed acoustic panels.
–They put some paneling on the walls that was absorbent,
particularly absorbent of high frequencies.
But it was basically to take the edge off of that side
of the acoustical spectrum, so that we could hear
each other better, and frankly to make the sound
a little bit darker, a little bit warmer for the audience.
–But even with the panels, the old Carnegie sound was still missing.
Little did they know the answer could be right beneath their feet.
In 1995, a discovery offered a possible solution
to the mystery of Carnegie Hall.
–They had this 10-year-old floor that's warping.
And when the people came in to examine what's the problem here,
and they start to peel back the maple,
and they find under the maple plywood—
and they peel back the plywood, and saw this layer of concrete.
They realized that they had a major problem.
I mean, they just must’ve been shocked.
–Music halls like Carnegie depend on clever acoustical engineering that moves the sound waves
from the stage to the auditorium.
A key element was the resonance of the stage floor.
Resonance is the enriching of a musical tone by supplementary vibration.
Before the renovations, the low-frequency instruments
like the cello and bass would vibrate the floor, amplifying
the low-frequency sound.
Low-frequency sound waves are often perceived as warm tones.
But if additional concrete was added during renovations,
this would’ve restricted the movement of the floor.
The low frequencies would no longer be able to resonate,
leaving the listeners experiencing brighter and harsher sounds.
–They dealt with it immediately, having completely owned up to the problem.
They rebuilt the stage. And when we came back to play later,
it had that nice resonance and warmth that we had been missing.
–Although there was much debate amongst experts
about whether the concrete was the real culprit,
there was no denying that after the stage floor was reinstalled,
many critics and musicians rejoiced at the return of the old Carnegie sound.
The renovation of the venerated venue and the reaction to it
would forever be cemented in Carnegie history.