I want to return to the topic of concert halls for a minute. There are so many beautiful things about The Egg and the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, that I wanted to make sure I posted pictures.
Here is violist Meng Wang standing in the outer lobby of The Egg, prior to rehearsal.
If you look closely behind him, you'll notice a portion of the roof is wood and another portion is glass. Here is the concert hall from the outside:
Where Meng is standing is where the two materials of the building meet. As I've mentioned before, this venue is HUGE. Andrew Druckenbrod from the Post-Gazette compared it to two Mellon Arenas. Here's a photo of the ATM like machine that I mentioned in my previous post. The machine helps to guide you from one point to another within the venue.
The venue in Shanghai is comprised of five areas. It is said that the concert hall was built to resemble an orchid or a butterfly - depends on who you ask. Each of the five round areas of the venue hold a different concert hall. Like The Egg, there's a hall for chamber music, one for opera, and so on.
The concert in Shanghai was unbelievable! The audience loved it so much, they wouldn't stop applauding until Honeck and the Orchestra performed a third encore!
Tonight is the rehearsal for the program in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The Orchestra arrived Monday evening from Shanghai. The venue in Kaohsiung, as I've mentioned before, is brand new. Built for the 2009 World Games which begin here in July, the Orchestra will inaugurate the new stadium. The World Games are very important to the city of Kaohsiung, with a number of posters and signs announcing the PSO's concert. I've seen a number of commercials since I arrived as well. The venue holds 40,000 seats, and the Orchestra will perform in the center of the field, much like a rock concert.
Maestro Honeck, PSO President Larry Tamburri and the soloists all took part in a press conference here in Kaohsiung to discuss the concert, and the excitement surrounding it.
On the far left is just one of the many promotional posters I mentioned. These posters are everywhere - from a university campus we drove by in a taxi, to the elevators in the hotel.
For more photos, make sure to take a look at Stephanie Tretick and Chuck Lirette's photo blog!
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