The Kansas City Chamber Orchestra delivered a spirited and gratifying final concert of its 39th season Thursday, April 30 in the rich acoustic setting of Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in downtown Kansas City.
It felt like Valentine’s Day all over again, with one work originating as an anniversary present from English composer Edward Elgar to his wife Alice. Another composition, The Twelve Kisses, employed the rich and evocative love poetry from the Song of Songs.
The program opened with the Elgar Serenade for Strings, performed with a strikingly balanced and blended group of 16 string players. Composed in 1892 (for his third anniversary), this is one of the composer’s earliest popular works. It opened with a crisp motive for violas, and the remainder of the ensemble soon entered with music that was both buoyant and elegant. Founding director and conductor Bruce Sorrell has always shown a flair for lovely musical phrasing, and that was evident in the brief opening.
The languorous central movement began with a lyrical melody that, while slow and dreamy, was never wearisome. Again, Sorrell’s shaping of the music gave the passage direction, especially in the passionate ending. The concluding allegretto was gentle and dancelike—a sweet conclusion to a lovely work.
Forrest Pierce’s The Twelve Kisses was composed in 2009, specifically for the KC Chamber Orchestra, and received its first performance the following year. It is a compelling piece, unabashedly tonal and filled with lush melodies and fascinating harmonies. The work is composed for piano and strings and features a coloratura soprano and the oboe d’amore—a slightly lower and mellower instrument than the standard oboe. Pierce, a member of the composition faculty at the University of Kansas, was in the audience for the performance.
The work sets several passages from the Song of Songs from the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible, utilizing a combination of original Hebrew text and English transliterations (the printed program identified them as “poetic transformations”) by the composer.
Soprano Victoria Botero proved herself to be both a virtuosic singer and a gifted interpreter of Pierce’s music. Throughout the work she employed a range of expressive vocal colors and sure technique to ably manage the wide leaps and rapid passages often called for by Pierce.
The opening movement, “Of Wine,” began in a dramatic fashion with the Hebrew and English texts reading “He shall kiss me on the mouth with twelve kisses of wine.” Margaret Marco, playing the oboe d’amore, was a featured soloist throughout the work, displaying a warm, attractive tone, and like Botero, exhibiting both melodic lyricism and technical brilliance.
Occasionally throughout the work, the ensemble’s balance was questionable, and it was hard at times to hear Botero and Marco over the rest of the group. This generally happened at highly expressive passages, but never was it more distracting than in the opening movement.
Another highlight was the 4th movement, entitled “The Old Song.” The lovely folklike melody was sung beautifully by Botero over Marco’s floating and occasionally virtuosic oboe d’amore part. But what helped set the character of the piece was the highly effective use of pizzicato (plucked) strings, accurately delivered with the string players holding the instruments just above the lap—reminiscent of a guitar or lute. Even Robert Pherigo’s well delivered piano part in the movement was at times percussive, as he touched and muted the strings inside the instrument with his right hand while playing the keys with his left.
The final movement, “Breeze-You,” was lovely and lyrical. The forceful and passionate ending was followed by touching utterances of “dodi” (“darling”), evocatively expressed by Botero.
The concert ended with an animated performance of Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major, KV 543. While there was no inherent theme of emotion or romance as was the case of the other works on the program, it was clearly a labor of love.
The slow, majestic introduction preceded a dramatic contrast between the main themes of the first movement. The gentle opening melody led to explosive energy in the second theme. Sorrell and the orchestra displayed an excellent use of dynamics, resulting in an exciting delivery. In the slow second movement, the orchestra again reflected the drama in the music. At the beginning, however, the violins did not present a sure sense of ensemble and blend.
The Minuet and Trio featured convincing accented downbeats as Sorrell conducted in a vigorous 1-to-the-bar. Clarinetist Jane Carl and flutist Christina Webster played beautifully in a duet throughout the Trio. The finale featured a calisthenic workout for the violinists, and they exhibited excellent blend and persuasive technique.
For information on the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, visit www.kcchamberorchestra.org.
Reviewed Thursday, April 30, 2026.
