new and old

The newly-renovated Victoria Concert Hall and Theatre is simply beautiful. Ok, so i admit i've been a bit slow on the uptake -- it re-opened last year, sometime in July or August, after almost 4 years of renovation works. And i've been wanting to go, really, i have. It's just that i took a bit of a long time to get there ...
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No matter. i love the new look, even though i have mixed feelings about it. It's a sensitive restoration job, generally, that preserves the original facade as well as the best bits of the old interior, while jazzing it up just enough to give it a clean, airy, contemporary vibe. The architects have designed the place so that it lets in lots of natural light -- it's both eco-friendly and very, very beautiful, the way the light falls. They've kept the old marble stairs, and the gorgeous pipe-organ, and they've recreated (i think -- i don't think it was a restoration) the old plaster pillars with their baroque carvings lovingly remodelled.
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i do so wish that my dad could be around to see all this. He used to bring me to attend concerts there quite frequently when i was growing up, and i have fond memories of running around the building, peeping into its nooks and crannies, just being a little music-geek-girl there. i wonder what he would have thought of the renovation.
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Because the new place doesn't quite have the same vibe as the old place, and there are some parts of the old building which seem to have been entirely obliterated. The Green Room is gone, as are the rest of the side-rooms up on the Circle floor, and i'm not sure how i feel about that. The efficient design of the new building doesn't allow for the kind of exploration i did as a child. The musicians used to do their pre-concert practising in the corridors outside the main hall; now the corridors have been turned into closed-up areas inaccessible to the public. Efficiency does tend to be in conflict with being simply human. Oh well. That's Singapore for you. Or maybe just modernisation. Or progress. Just have to get used to it, i guess.
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Still, i'm so glad that the concert hall's open again. It's a nice, classy, and atmospheric (in a good way!) medium-sized venue -- just what we need for more intimate chamber music concerts, choral music, and smaller-sized orchestral performances. i've missed the place, these past few years. i'm glad they preserved it rather than tearing it down.
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PS:
It was a good concert, too. The SSO sounded infinitely better than they did during LKY's funeral. And Lin Cho-Liang's Stradivarius was golden-honey to the ears. i'm glad i went.
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