How to deal with room acoustics (high-reverberance)?

[chopinrabbitthing]

Hi,
So I'll be playing in a competition at a room with terrible acoustics. It's really echo-ey.

 I couldn't properly hear myself the last time I played there (last week) at another competition. I couldn't get through to the final round, because, judging by the adjudicator's comments, I didn't adjust to the room's acoustics too well, making some parts sound forced (which was probably very true).

At the end, while giving out results, he mentioned that in such a venue, in order to adapt better to the acoustics, one should contrast the dynamics even more dramatically. I asked my teacher that and she said so too.


Are there any more suggestions on how to adapt better to a venue like this? I'll be playing the first movement of Mozart's K310 there, so there's plenty of contrasting to do!


Thanks

[iansinclair]

Depends a little on whether it is really echo-ey (distinct echo) or overly reverberant (a sharp sound takes a long time to die out, but without a distinct echo).

The former there isn't that much you can do about, except as your teacher said to make the dynamics really stand out,  Oddly, at the same time playing the passages with maximum loudness a little softer may help (I know, that sounds contradictory -- but what it really means is that the soft passages get softer still!).

If reverberation is the problem, it can help some if you play a little slower than you might otherwise, and if you use a bit more detache (not really detached, but a bit more articulation).  This is hard to do without practice, though, so you might not want to worry about it.

[Bob]

Put the lid down?

Shorter notes.  More space between notes.

It depends where the audience members are.  Closer up -- Sounds choppy.  Far back, sounds mushy.  Their choice where they sit.