Note that this tour to New York and Florida was the first time that the
Houston Symphony Chorus has travelled with the Houston Symphony outside of
Texas. The following essay is by Alice Beckstrom:
Note that this tour to New York and Florida was the first time that the
Houston Symphony Chorus has travelled with the Houston Symphony outside of
Texas. The following essay is by Alice Beckstrom:
Singing with the Houston Symphony for Gustav Holst's, "The Planets" has been an odyssey of immense proportions.
Our journey started with single performances and a recording session in the summer of 2009. We then got the thrilling news that the HSO was requesting 20 women from the chorus to go on tour with them to premiere, "The Planets – An HD Odyssey." It would comprise concerts first in Houston, then to Carnegie Hall in New York and two performances in Florida (The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, and, The Broward Center for the Performing Arts).
This experience was musically, emotionally, and personally rewarding. It was also the most exacting 56 bars of music I've ever sung. (Technically, notes are only sung on about 42 of those bars.) Maestro Hans Graf had a clear vision of what sound he expected from us, the unseen chorus. The problem was always reaching and maintaining the perfection of tone, pitch, clarity and unity this piece requires. Add to this the difficulty of having an off-stage choir hear the orchestra and have the pitch high enough to blend with them through walls, doors, etc. (For our recording session for the DVD, the monitors were not working and the chorus could not hear the orchestra. We bravely sung, in essence, a cappella, following Charles Hausmann's direction!)
Many prospective problems for future concerts were solved with the introduction of headphones for the chorus, with Brett Mitchell (the American Conducting Fellow for HSO) playing the orchestra reduction on a keyboard. With the headphones half-on, we could hear the accompaniment and each other. (This later proved life-saving in one of our venues on tour!)
The interest in this presentation of "The Planets" was high, due to a wonderful film the symphony commissioned from NASA. The Houston concerts quickly grew from three to five, sold-out performances. While preparing for our Houston performances, we were constantly being listened to and judged, as a whole, as a section, and individually, both by Charles and by Graf. As I said earlier, we were expected to reach perfection and to deliver it every time.
The Houston concerts were a success and we hurriedly finished packing for the two diverse climates we were heading to. We were also very pleased to receive our passes to the stage of Carnegie Hall, and our artist's passes as members of the Houston Symphony, for the other venues.
On January 27 we went to IAH to fly with members of the symphony to New York City. Continental Airlines made us feel very special when they announced that on board the flight were members of "our very own, Houston Symphony" and asked that we begin boarding first. We felt like celebrities.
We arrived in New York and immediately tried to soak in all the sights, sounds and smells of Manhattan. We saw the impressive view of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty upon landing. We drove the city and chuckled at the different road signs. (IE: no spitting, and, no standing) We arrived at our first hotel, the Park Central, and noticed that Carnegie Hall has just across the street!
We had the balance of Wednesday and Thursday until 2 PM to ourselves and quickly broke off and hurried to do whatever interested us. Being a diverse group, our choices were also diverse. Some went to the theater (Wicked, Mary Poppins and Shakespeare's As You Like It). Food choices ranged from street vendors or deli's to the finest NY cuisine. Museums were also visited (Guggenheim, Frick, MOMA and Met Museum of Art). We walked to Times Square, Central Park, everywhere.
The cold temperatures were one thing we were prepared for, but, snow? We were all surprised to wake up Thursday morning to flurries of snow (in Houston we would have called it a real snow day.) However, this did not stop one group from braving standing outside the taping of The Today Show. With sign in hand, they were not only shown on TV, but they also did a promo for the concert and even sang the NBC jingle on air. It was later estimated that a local promo like that would have cost over $100, 000. So, we felt that we have now paid our way for this tour and hopefully for more to come.
We had our first rehearsal in the Green Room at Carnegie Hall. (We typically had three rehearsals before every performance. As unusual as this was, it proved very necessary to keep our tone and unity and to make any changes for the acoustics of the hall.)
Our first backstage rehearsal at Carnegie was also our first experience with quickly adapting our technique for the different halls. The very small room off the stage had many problems. When we sang, it was impossible to hear the orchestra. We could only have 5 wearing headphones and one monitor to hear the keyboard. (Any more than 6, and NY union laws would have charged the HSO around $35,000 for having an "event") Also, the room had a completely sound-proof door. There was little difference in singing with the doors wide or opened a few inches. And all sound ended when the doors were shut. We also were sounding under pitch.
To solve these problems, Graf first instructed the NY stage crew (this was also the only venue to exclude the HSO stage crew from doing any of their jobs) to leave both doors wide open. And for the final few bars, quickly close to 2 inches and then, gradually and slowly close them until the end. He then proposed that we sing at a higher frequency, 444 Hertz! (Pianos are usually tuned to 440 Hz and orchestras to 442.)
We went back to the Green Room to rehearse at the new pitch/frequency. Several women had iPhones, which we used with tuning apps to sing at this new pitch. We then returned to the backstage room to sing with the orchestra. Unfortunately, they could not figure out how to change the frequency of the piano to 444 and had been calling people all over the country to try to fix it. Graf was getting frustrated and everyone was scrambling around to fix it so we could sing this final movement.
Again, a woman from the chorus (Jennifer Young) saved the day by using her iPod Touch to google for the information on changing the world setting of Hz on the piano. She showed the instructions to the pianist and the day was saved! The piano was tuned higher, we sang higher, and we felt ready for the performance.
We returned to the Green Room, relaxed, and watched the symphony performing on the plasma in the room. We rehearsed one more time, before going downstairs for our first tour performance.
We were secretly very pleased that, with the doors wide open and the overhead light on us, we could actually be seen by about 1/3 of the hall. We sang our Neptune hearts out and enjoyed the thunderous applause.
There was only one snag. Apparently, the NY stage crew didn't take Graf's instructions about closing the doors seriously. They completely shut the doors one bar too soon. Graf was waiting for the final bar of singing to float away, and instead it was just snuffed out. After he bowed to the audience, he came offstage and was livid. The NY crew looked nonplussed and we all had our mouths dropped like a bunch of fish. On his next return, to get Charles, he thanked us, apologized, and went back out. Phew.
We had the honor of being invited to the Post-Concert Reception. Attending were Graf, HSO musicians and staff, influential patrons and the press (Dan Rather was even there). When Maestro was given the floor, he thanked the major donors to this project, Duncan Copp who made the film, HSO musicians and staff, and, then he recognized us. He didn’t just thank us. He actually explained the difficulty of the piece and praised our technical ability and superb performance. It meant so much for him to show his appreciation for us in front of this group of people. I felt that he was not just praising us, but ALL of the Houston Symphony Chorus.
Here is a portion of the rave review from The NYTimes (on page one of the Arts Section.) “...And the work ends rapturously with the ethereal “Neptune, the Mystic,” which concludes with the haunting strands of an offstage women’s chorus (here, members of the Houston Symphony Chorus)....”
We left NYC with happy memories and headed to sunny Florida. Landing in West Palm Beach, we had quite a drive to our hotel in Fort Lauderdale. With such lovely weather, we quickly divided and conquered. Our off-time in Florida included trips to the beach, sitting by the pool, taking water taxis, eating out, or just reading a book.
Our next concert was back in West Palm Beach at the beautiful Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. It did not take long to discover what the difficulty would be in performing in this venue.
We arrived, found our wonderfully huge, dressing rooms, then went to the backstage to warm-up. There was a glaring problem... there was no shell dividing the stage from the back-stage... only a black scrim. (At least there wouldn’t be any problems from a failed door closing!)
Graf and Charles discussed options for different ways we could sing. What our final solution was to sing with our backs turned away from the stage and to use our scarves as “singer’s-mutes”. Charles had specific instructions for the decrescendos... 6” from our mouths, to 4”, to 2”, then sopranos on the pp held them against our mouths... and it worked!
A portion of the review from The Palm Beach Daily News: “...Neptune the Mystic was joined by the Houston Women's Chorus, in wordless and powerfully evocative sounds....”
Sunday was our final concert in Fort Lauderdale at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, another beautiful venue with another sold-out audience. After the major adjustments in technique and sound from the other venues, performing at the Broward Center was fairly routine for us.
We singers had another emotional highlight when Maestro Graf took time at the end of the orchestra rehearsal to again thank the chorus. We were very touched at the lengthy tribute he gave us as he addressed the orchestra.
It was another stellar performance. We knew it was now time to leave the planets and head back to Houston and home.
A portion of the review from The Miami Herald: “...Houston has an absolutely first-class orchestra. Its sound is rich, full bodied, refined and well blended. In preparing for this tour, the musicians had clearly rehearsed to the hilt, and they performed with authority, immaculate technical precision and panache....”
I sincerely hope that this is not the only tour that we will be invited on with the symphony. It was truly an experience that I will long remember.
Alice Beckstrom
Soprano 1
Here are links to images of parts of the playbills from the performances:
