Almost everything about the Honolulu Symphony's 2007-08 season is new. If you're planning to attend a concert, there are many changes to look and listen for.

The Symphony is also experimenting with new scheduling, and that means a change in our concert review procedure.

Most performances during this season will be on Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons. Reviews of Saturday concerts will be posted online Sundays at www.honoluluadvertiser.com. Look for the print reviews on Mondays, in The Advertiser's Island Life section.

NEW CONDUCTOR

As for changes within the Symphony, the biggest is that it has finally hired Samuel Wong's successor, principal conductor Andreas Delfs.

Born and raised in Germany, Delfs studied most famously under the renowned conductor Christoph von Dohnányi. He also attended the Hamburg Conservatory and Juilliard. Delfs directed a number of orchestras and opera theaters, mostly in Germany, before moving to the U.S.

He was the conductor of the well-known St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for several years, and is coming to Honolulu from the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, which he led for almost a decade.

With a reputation for innovative and progressive programming, Delfs brings with him professional connections to some of the greatest soloists today, including Yo-Yo Ma, Renee Fleming, Itzhak Perlman and Emanuel Ax, to name a few. Those connections may prove to be invaluable, especially for a place as geographically isolated as Hawai'i.

The new conductor's impact on programming and on the roster of guest soloists will be something to look forward to in future seasons, as this season's concerts were set long ago.

More immediate will be his impact on the Honolulu Symphony's style, sound and concert ambience. Delfs is said to have an electric podium presence and a charismatic relationship with his audiences.

Delfs is slated to conduct about half of this season's concerts, including Saturday's opener.

VARIOUS VENUES

For the first time since construction of the Blaisdell Concert Hall, the Honolulu Symphony will be performing in a variety of venues to accommodate scheduling conflicts.

This change is significant because orchestral venues are not just buildings.

Venues are an aspect of orchestras' identities, a partner in an intimate relationship — a positive or negative partner, depending on the quality of the hall — and an integral part of their sound. The venue serves as the orchestra's resonating chamber, and orchestras adjust their playing to suit the hall. Over time, many orchestras develop a signature sound that is part-conductor, part-musicians and part-hall.

Depending on the acoustics, some halls make pretty much anyone sound great, while others flatten the sound and highlight every flaw, making great orchestras sound mediocre. Halls can absorb sound like a sponge, making an orchestra sound dead, or bounce sound around like pingpong balls, creating cacophony out of string quartets. Acoustics are a complex mystery, and halls that turn out to be terrific for one use may not work at all for another.

In the first three concerts of this season, audiences will hear the Honolulu Symphony in three different venues. After opening this Saturday at the Blaisdell Concert Hall, the Symphony will present the next six concerts wither at the Hawai'i Theatre or Mamiya Theatre. The Symphony will then return to the Blaisdell in mid-December for the remainder of the season.

Hawai'i Theatre, which seats about 1,400, is shallow and tall: all seats are fairly close to the stage horizontally, with multiple tiers creating both vertical distance and an overhang above the main floor ("orchestra") seats. For an optimal sound, orchestras need space for their sound to blend and expand, which means the best seats will likely need to be neither too close, nor too high, nor under the overhang.

Mamiya Theatre provides a single, raked floor that seats about 500, compared to the Blaisdell's 2,000-plus, but because of the hall's intimacy, virtually every seat ought to be excellent. Both programs at Mamiya Theater call for smaller ensembles, so the audience should not be overpowered by a full orchestra.

FAMILIAR MUSIC

The Symphony has balanced this year's plethora of new things — new conductor, new venues, new schedule, new habits of travel, parking and restaurants — with familiar music.

Programs are drawn almost exclusively from the old canon: Mozart, Haydn, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, and of course Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz and Brahms — with only a few programs venturing into the 20th century.

Several guest conductors and soloists will be familiar, as well.

The former director of the Symphony's chorus, Karen Kennedy, will return to conduct the International Choral Festival concert, and guest conductor Naoto Otomo will close the season in May.

The season opens with perennial favorite violinist Sarah Chang, who performs frequently with the Symphony, and three of the concerts showcase the Symphony's own musicians, including the annual performance by concertmaster Ignace Jang.

The 2007-08 season presents an interesting blend of new and familiar, which may provide a crucial balance. In music, however, balance exists only in performance.

Let the season begin.