La Maison Symphonique Montreal, QC, Canada

Many modern halls have big, bright acoustics. La Maison has mellowness and warmth: during the Vivier work Ms. Wall’s angelic solo soprano lines penetrated the space easily…the overall acoustics are resonant and clear.

One of the greatest halls I’ve ever played in.

…the fulfillment of a dream that the orchestra has been waiting for through its 77-year history.

Where the acoustics seemed, paradoxically, the most compelling was during Bell’s solo cadenza. Everything was warm, present and beautiful.

Who could have predicted it to be perfect for chamber music?

Its shoebox shape has a functional beauty that reminded me of our R. Fraser Elliot Hall and, as one might expect, the acoustics are glorious: detailed, warm, rich and transparent.

The best innings in the main work, the same Beethoven symphony, came in the flowing adagio. The violins’ intelligent cantabile line had real warmth, character and unforced presence. Every instrument in the orchestra sounded more like itself than at Wilfrid-Pelletier, because we were getting so much more information. The hall was delivering more of the complex profile of overtones that distinguish one instrument’s sound from another, and that flavour every note.

Music from high and low registers projected well, a good sign acoustically.

The following week the OSM gave us the Turangalîla Symphony, an apt choice to really test the hall’s ability to handle both great masses of sound and a vast range of instrumental colours.

With Turangalîla, La Maison Symphonique emerged a winner as it easily handled the enormous volume throughout the work without distortion, and most instruments could be clearly heard in both soft and loud passages…