SOUNDING FINE

Ever since Lorin Maazel took over the New York Philharmonic, critics have lined up for and against and in between. Today's Financial Times review of their performance of Berlioz's "Roméo et Juliette" puts the case on both sides as well as anything I've read: The maestro "is a bit like that girl with a curl. When he's good, he's very good indeed, and when he's bad he's tawdry."

But read the full review, which tells how Maazel "brought out the virtuosic best" in a "variable orchestra" and "mustered a gutsy performance on a vast scale." The reviewer also offers this "incidental intelligence: in their possibly misplaced zeal to abandon Lincoln Center in favour of Carnegie Hall, Philharmonic apologists have wasted no effort to disparage the acoustics of Avery Fisher Hall. After a concert that sounded as fine as this, I think they may protest too much."

Here's some incidental intelligence of my own: I ran into Emanuel Ax at my local gym and asked him what he thought of the acoustics of Zankel Hall, which has been the subject of so much critical hemming and hawing in recent weeks.

I figured Ax's opinion was worth something, and not just because he has to have a great pair of ears to be the pianist he is: Ax performed, both as a soloist and as Renée Fleming's accompanist, in the concert that inaugurated Zankel Hall last month.

Ax said he loves the hall, thought it sounded great from the stage and -- having attended several other concerts -- from the orchestra seats; he didn't mind the subway rumbling nearby -- which he found barely audible and not worth worrying about -- and rolled his eyes about the critics. "They've got to say something," he said, and smiled as he said this. It was a gentle form of indulgence. (Click on his name above, and you'll hear why.)