By Kathy (Cronin) Grant, Concentus Member
Mention The Planets and it seems that a vast majority respond with comments about their favorite movement or where they most love to be while listening to Holst’s work (outside on a mountaintop or on the open water on a boat at night are commonly mentioned.) Gustav Holst’s favorite work seems to cross music-lover boundaries…a garage-band loving friend immediately responded to our concert announcement with “Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity!” That is my most awesomest favorite!!!” as if he listened to it every morning (and maybe he does!).
Concentus Women’s Chorus recently performed the movement “Neptune, the Mystic” with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and guest conductor, Michael Francis, in a recent performance of The Planets.
What made it special to me was not just appearing with my singing sisters in our debut performance with the RPO, and taking that big curtain call, but knowing that I was creating what we hoped to be a magical moment from the stage with my husband, Kenny Grant, who is the principal clarinetist of the RPO. “Would he be proud to be on stage with us?” I wondered.
Concentus prepared our movement of the piece independent of RPO efforts. During the week of production, we came together, both meeting and working with the guest conductor, Michael Francis, for the first time. We share our experiences with you:
Kenny: “I knew a year ago, when our artistic management selected the repertoire, that no other group but Concentus should perform this piece with us. They are the premier women’s chorus in the Rochester area, after all!”
Kathy: “I didn’t want Kenny to be embarrassed by any sense of my chorus falling short of his colleagues’ expectations….but I also wanted him to feel as special as I did about co-creating a wonderful presentation of this marvelous piece of work….with him.”
Kenny: “The Maestro organized the rehearsal time very efficiently, and I credit both him and Concentus for coming together so quickly in their interpretation of the piece. When Concentus came on stage, actually, it was backstage near a storage closet….I was sending nothing but love their way. They did a great job at that first rehearsal, and in fact just needed about 10 minutes with us to get it just right.”
Kathy: “Kenny was so sweet to us all. I could FEEL him smiling from the stage as we went through our rehearsal. And, I was so proud of HIM and the entire RPO for their performance of the first piece on the program, Walton’s Henry V Suite, as well as the other movements of Holst’s The Planets. Both pieces are so dramatic and engaging, and the RPO performance brought both to life in a way I’d never experienced before; particularly, the Holst, which I’ve heard and performed several times. “Mars, Bringer of War” was uniquely impressive, I felt. Wow!”
Kenny: “”Neptune, the Mystic,” closed the work and the performance, and of course, this was the movement Concentus sang with us. In fact, the orchestra stops playing, and the women continue to sing ethereally from off-stage, tapering to nothing. I was holding my breath, as was the audience. As the applause finally burst out, my colleague turned to me and said, ‘You need to take Katherine to dinner, that was perfect!’ I was so proud, so pleased for her and for Concentus – and for the Maestro.”
Kathy: “Kenny had sweetly looked after me the day of our first performance; I know he believed it would be a very special evening for us all. He even visited the “green room” provided to us to make sure we were ok, and to give me a pre-concert kiss. My singing sisters, of course, wanted to know if he would be giving each of them a kiss, too. The only thing better than knowing we had delivered a beautiful performance together, was the anticipation of doing it again (this concert was presented to Rochester audiences on May 29 and 31).”
Concentus Women's Chorus 