Then we went into the beautiful concert hall. It is another Frank Gehry design. We were totally unimpressed with the acoustics and layout of his New World Symphony hall in Miami Beach (the newer of the two). This one is much better, in our opinion. The acoustics were fabulous and it is a "wowsy" experience visually. The outside is what we have all come to understand as a Gehry design. Inside, the hall is huge and beautiful. The organ is unlike anything I've ever seen with the pipes arranged like a big upright stack of toothpicks.
We heard a Respighi, a Bartok, and the feature was Andrew Watts, pianist, with the orchestra doing a fabulous Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor, which I am sure is familiar to nearly everyone. Watts made it look easy. It seemed hardly a challenge to him. He moves his hands off the keys with a great flourish, and I think his embellishments were way beyond anything usual.
Both before and after the concert, the street in front of the concert hall was blocked intermittently while a movie was being filmed. We watched for awhile as they filmed a moving car sequence with a very large camera mounted on a fast-moving lead car. Many other streets downtown were also partially blocked for the filming. Luckily on a Sunday there wasn't much traffic.
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