The Spire Chamber Ensemble opened their 16th season with a program entitled “Reflections.” The choir, under the able direction of Artistic Director Ben Spalding, sang sacred texts, alternating settings from the Renaissance with 20th- and 21st-century versions of the same text.
While the program was performed on Saturday, Oct. 4 at Redemptorist Church in Kansas City, I attended the second performance on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 5. This took place at Visitation Church, also in Kansas City and one of the region’s premier acoustic venues.
Spire maintains a unique approach to staffing its ensemble when compared to many other local groups. Rather than utilizing all local professionals, it features several top-tier local soloists and brings in other singers from outside the area. This concert featured singers from Detroit, Boston, Houston and other cities as well as Kansas City.
As a result, out of the gate Spire’s vocal sound is highly impressive: rich, full-bodied and historically informed. This was evident from the opening work on the program, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck’s “Hodie Christus natus est” (“Today Christ Is Born.”) This work is one of a number of popular Renaissance motets on the program that would be familiar to many in the audience. The opening was quite striking in the volume and opulence of tone, as well as the intentional avoidance of vibrato. At the same time, the interpretation was very satisfying—crisp articulations, impressive diction and excellent blend.
The more recent repertoire was very well chosen, and the first two works were from a set of four Christmas motets composed by the marvelous French composer Francis Poulenc in the early 1950s. “Hodie Christus natus est” featured short rhythmic phrases playfully delivered with the composer’s witty and characteristic non-alignment of musical and textual accents. “O magnum mysterium” (“O Great Mystery”) was dark, lyrical and quite lovely. While the chorus’ intonation was almost always spot on, the exposed opening soprano entrance was slightly off.
One of the most intriguing contemporary works was Cecilia McDowall’s “Regina Coeli” from her Three Latin Motets, composed in 2004. In a brief three minutes or so, the music alternated slower alleluias with dancelike, joyful sections to the remainder of the text. The alleluias featured bright, beautiful and mildly dissonant clusters of sound, and the dancelike sections were infused with exciting rhythms and dynamics.
Spalding made one of the most striking choices of the program in the way he contrasted two works: the “Kyrie” from the Mass for Five Voices by English Renaissance composer William Byrd and the “Kyrie after Byrd,” composed about 10 years ago by Roxanna Panufnik. The chorus did not pause between settings, and the juxtaposition between sound worlds was unsettling but fascinating.
It’s not often that an audience gets to hear Thomas Tallis’ motet “Spem in alium” (“Hope in Any Other”), and with good reason. The work is comprised of forty (yes, forty!) individual voice parts and is well beyond the scope of smaller groups. Spalding showed the enormous score to the audience, and it appeared to be a good two feet long. Spire, with its 22 voices, joined forces with the approximately 30-voiced Concert Choir of William Jewell College. The nine-minute piece exhibited a massive sound that was stunning in Visitation Church’s luxuriant acoustic setting.
The William Jewell singers performed their own reflective duo—a lovely polychoral “Ave Maria” by Jacob Handl contrasted with a 20th-century setting of the same text by Igor Stravinsky. The well-blended choir was directed by Interim Director of Choral Studies Lawrence Abernathy, who also sang tenor in the Spire Chamber Ensemble.
Spalding included one of his own compositions in the contrasted pairings of pieces. After a polychoral motet by Hieronymus Praetorius, the ensemble performed Spalding’s “Alleluia.” The work is a fine one, harmonically rich and dense, with challenging rhythms.
Short settings of “O sacrum convivium” (“O Sacred Banquet”) by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Olivier Messaien featured two sweet harmonizations despite the differing eras represented. The Palestrina motet was sung from the baptismal font area by Melanie Russell, Nick Garza, Clifton Massey, Sumner Thompson and Brian Chu.
Soloists demonstrated the vocal depth of the chorus with impressive performances by tenors Jon Lee Keenan and Derek Chester, and a beautiful chant sung by soprano Elise Groves.
After resounding applause from the audience, the ensemble concluded with an encore by Swiss composer Ivo Antognini. Noted by Spalding as an homage to Kansas City jazz, the “Jubilate Deo” (“Be Joyful in the Lord”) was a rollicking, rapid and utterly joyful setting in 5/4 time and a wonderful ending to the concert.
Reviewed Sunday, October 5, 2025.
For more information, visit www.spirechamberensemble.org.
