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boys and girls, watch how the oboist's cheeks puff out when he does the next passage," there will be the oboist, bigger than life, in his pop-cheeked moment of glory.
Philharmonic Hall is scheduled for a grand opening Sept. 23. Two weeks ago technicians tested and acoustically tuned the hall. A twelve-gauge yachting cannon was fired from the stage; the orchestra played over and over a specially commissioned composition full of loud noises and sudden silences—Daniel Pinkham's Catacoustical Measures—to test echoes and reverberation periods. To simulate the presence of a live audience, seats were filled with pointy-headed fiber glass dummies eerily resembling hooded KKKlans-men, while such fine musical ears as Leonard Bernstein, Leopold Stokowski and Erich Leinsdorf prowled the corridors, listening critically as technicians shifted the position of acoustical panels suspended from the ceiling to correct defects. Final verdict: O.K. for sound.