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A unique acoustic

Robin Holloway

Wednesday, 24th September 2008

Robin Holloway on the unique orchestra layout that produces the Festspielhaus’s unique acoustic

Unlike the ‘invisible orchestra’ of Bayreuth there is no mystery at the Maltings concerning the source of the sound. Mystery lies in the marvellous quality, recognised from the start as a triumph, still more so when rebuilt after the fire of 1969 only two years after it was first unveiled: amply warm yet crystal-clear, nurturing voices and instruments like a Madonna and her child; at its absolute best, with such attuned sensitivity, for smaller forces, but able to accommodate larger without straying when needed, even up to a Mahler symphony.

‘Ironically’ the finest sonority I’ve ever heard there was at the inspired concert-performance of a Wagner opera — Tristan under Reginald Goodall. It’s harder to imagine a Peter Grimes or an Albert Herring in the mystic temple of the Total Artwork! Yet something much more incongruous still actually took place. The USAF having unwittingly failed to bomb the Festspielhaus out of existence (as reported last month) then profered the sacred theatre with entertainment for the victorious troops: during the Allied occupation the wondrous acoustic resonated briefly to the good Jewish/Manhattan strains of Jerome Kern, George Gershwin and Irving Berlin.

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