The Oregon Symphony opened its 2008-09 season with Beethoven’s 9th, and critic David Stabler was notably unimpressed with the quality of the performance. So, it seems, were a number of patrons, and even orchestra staffers. Was a stage extension the source of the problem? “Saturday’s balances were so skewed,” Stabler writes, “even the symphony staff is wondering if the extension is to blame.” One orchestra violist blogged about what went wrong in the Beethoven.