In Saturday’s (7/27) Los Angeles Times, Mark Swed writes that the Hollywood Bowl “has changed over the years as audio and visual technology have advanced, and it has done so again this summer with a new, improved sound system and four new hi-def LED screens. The outdoors are now expected to offer the conveniences of the living room. At the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s concert on Thursday, I thought I would wander to see whether an up-to-date Bowl still could produce a true state of wonder. The program offered flashy pieces by Liszt and Respighi conducted by a revered Spanish maestro, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, and featured the exacting but sometimes flamboyant pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.… Acoustically, the Bowl is undoubtedly the most satisfying it’s been since amplification was introduced in the 18,000-seat amphitheater many decades ago. Instruments sound like instruments do close-up. But everything changes when they can also be seen up close in such striking detail as they can on the new, overpowering screens. The $1.5-million video [system’s] four monitors penetrated the natural setting with a noxious glow. All showed the same images…. The screens are too far away to observe any meaningful detail, and the result is a bombardment of useless visual information.”

Posted July 29, 2013