By Maggie Symington
Concentus was honored to join the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra to sing both Debussy’s Nocturnes and Holst’s The Planets on the same program in January 2024. This was our third time performing The Planets with the RPO and the second time Nocturnes, all under different guest conductors. Each conductor brings something different and personal to the music, and since our first performance of these pieces in 2014 our membership has ebbed and flowed around a “core memory” of these pieces.
This was Anna Atwater’s first time working with the RPO as our director, and she prepared us well for our first rehearsal with Maestro Peter Bay. He had some deserved corrections to share with us (it’s so easy to let the triplets come out like eight notes!). We adapted as he changed some Nocturnes vowels from the usual “ah”s to “noo”s and “doo”s for greater emphasis. The Nocturnes movement the chorus sings is called “Sirenes,” and Bay reminded us of the lore – the sirens sing their beautiful songs to lure sailors to their deaths. To convey this, he directed us, after about 100 measures of singing sweetly, to sing not just louder but also more dangerously! One particularly fun moment in preparing this piece was at measures 55-56, when the singers’ and conductor’s scores had different notes for the chorus. Luckily, Dr. Honey Meconi, a Concentus alumna and musicologist who joined us for this concert, was able to educate all of us on the history of the contradiction in those measures and reassure Bay that it was his artistic decision.
Singing “Neptune” in The Planets is always challenging since the chorus must be positioned offstage. In this recent performance, not only were we offstage, but the stage doors were also closed nearly the whole movement. In past performances, the doors remained ajar to allow us to hear the orchestra more clearly and to allow the audience to hear us. This time, it was difficult for us to hear the orchestra at all through the closed doors! While the singers watched conductor Anna Atwater’s direction, she orchestrated the balance between Bay’s conducting (viewed via backstage screen), the written score in front of her, and the 24 voices of Concentus. Atwater did an amazing job anticipating and translating Maestro Bay’s wishes into the ethereal voices from deep space.
Here are a few of the comments we received post-performance:
“Concentus nailed it last night! Congratulations. (We) were sitting up in the Loges and the blend was ethereal in both the Debussy and Holst. Brava! We were talking about it all the way home. You couldn’t tell, but the audience all exhaled at the same time about 10 seconds after Neptune. The concert was a real treat. Thank your sister singers for such a wonderful experience.”
“So wonderful. As the chorus died away at the end both the man next to me and the guy in front of me and I were all crying and when the whole thing was finished, the row in front of and behind us were all talking together with us and others about how wonderful Concentus was in the Debussy and at the end – so you all rocked it! I hope you enjoyed performing. I love the sound of your chorus so much.”
“Beautiful performance last night! The offstage choir during Neptune gave me goosebumps and I suspect I’m not alone. Bravo!”
“I got to see you sing last night and it was awesome! You guys were beautiful haunting and spectacular. Congratulations to all. What an accomplishment.”
“Again, the ladies of Concentus added extraordinarily to tonight’s RPO concert. What a treat!! Even my 14 year old said it was a great concert. Congratulations on a wonderful performance!!”
It was extremely gratifying to see Kodak Hall almost completely filled to capacity both nights, and a delight to participate in the celebration of the RPO’s 100th anniversary season. We look forward to more collaborations with them in the future!
Concentus Women's Chorus 