Walt Disney Hall redux in New York?

"The concert hall of the 21st century has arrived," so says the New York Times, and it's not what you see on the left.  A new 1,200-seat facility in Troy, N.Y., has certainly got an ungainly 21st century 14-word moniker -- The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

So does that mean that L.A.'s still-shiny concert hall downtown is now moldy sliced bread from some ancient era?

Maybe, since it's not nearly so easy to float a piano through space in our anthropologic site as at EMPAC.  But at the inaugural concert in Troy last Saturday night, much of the program -- Ives' "Unanswered Question," Ligeti's "Lux Aeterna" and Thomas Tallis' "Spem in Alium" -- were pieces that had been played at Disney's opening events.  Even the high-tech stuff was same old same old.  EMPAC invited the Japanese dance and performance troup Dumb Type to bring "Voyage," the show that helped launch REDCAT five years ago.  Oh, and the hall's first piano recital last weekend featured a piece by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Welcome to the 21st century, Troy.   

-- Mark Swed

Photo: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times