The Severance Hall Stage Gets a Facelift
In the summer of 1958, the stage at Severance Hall was renovated at the request of George Szell to improve the acoustics of the original hall. The Danish-modern style maple shell improved the reverberation time in the hall from 1.0 seconds to 1.6 seconds, allowing the Orchestra members to truly hear each other across the stage. Partly as a result of this newly designed “Szell shell,” the Orchestra was able to develop a crisper, more homogenous sound; eventually referred to as “The Cleveland Sound.”
