"The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing is come.”

So wrote King Solomon in the Song of Songs. It’s also time for the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra to present its annual spring concert. Bruce Sorrell, the orchestra’s Music Director, knows just how to celebrate the seasons. This year’s concert is bursting with beautiful music that is reflective of this favorite time of year. In addition to a serenade by Sir Edward Elgar and Mozart’s Symphony No. 39, the program features a work written for the orchestra by Forrest Pierce, Twelve Kisses. Based on the love poetry of King Solomon, it will be sung by Kansas City favorite Victoria Sofia Botero.

The Kansas City Chamber Orchestra presents Spring Enchantment Thursday, April 30 at 7:30 PM at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral.

The concert opens with Elgar’s lyrical Serenade for Strings, a work the Chamber Orchestra last performed in 2014. Written in the 1890s as an anniversary gift for Elgar’s wife, the Serenade is an early glimpse of the composer’s mature voice. Sorrell points to the unsettled opening gesture as a clue to the emotional world beneath the surface. “With Elgar, one of the secrets is that there is always this unrest underneath the majesty and beauty,” he says. “It captures something of the British Empire at that period, heading into the decline that World War I hastened.”

The slow movement, by contrast, is one of Elgar’s most heartfelt creations. “It’s truly one of the most gorgeous love songs ever,” Sorrell says. The last movement has a gentle lift to it. It doesn’t try to dazzle; instead, it moves with a light, almost conversational grace. It circles back to the opening material, tying the whole Serenade together in a way that feels unforced and deeply satisfying. It’s a brief, final glance over the shoulder before the piece comes to rest. The serenade has a warmth and intimacy makes it an ideal opening for the evening.

Sir Edward Elgar

At the center of the program is 12 Kisses, written for the Chamber Orchestra by Forrest Pierce and premiered in 2010. Pierce approached Sorrell with the idea years earlier, sending a concept statement that immediately caught the conductor’s attention. The resulting work sets texts from the Song of Solomon in Pierce’s own translations, sometimes literal, sometimes freely adapted. The opening line sets the tone: “He shall kiss me on the mouth with 12 kisses of wine; wine can’t compare to his lips when he kisses me.”

The cycle unfolds in six movements for soprano, strings, piano, and oboe d’amore, an instrument whose warm color suits the poetry. Originally written for soprano Sarah Tannehill Anderson, the work will be performed on this concert by Victoria Botero, whose dramatic range and clarity of tone make her a strong match for Pierce’s writing. Sorrell first worked with Botero in 2014 on Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and is looking forward to collaborating this time on 12 Kisses. “It is not an easy work by any means,” he says. “But it will be a lot of fun to put it together with her.”

Though Sorrell programs with intention, he acknowledges that seasonal connections sometimes emerge on their own. Reading through the Song of Songs texts again, he realized how naturally they align with spring. “There’s something intuitive that happens,” he says. “You can learn how to put together a program, but there’s also a certain amount of emotional insight that works in the background.”

King Solomon painted by Pietro Perugino c. 1496–1500

Victoria Botero, Photo: Jeff Evrard

Forrest Pierce

Sorrell notes the symmetry of ending the 39th season with Mozart’s 39th Symphony, but the choice is rooted in musical substance. “As I started to refamiliarize myself with it, I thought, ‘I’d forgotten how truly amazing the structure is,’” he says. “The way he plays with the harmonies and the energy throughout the work.” Written in the same miraculous summer as the 40th and 41st symphonies, the 39th is often overshadowed, yet it contains some of Mozart’s most refined, elegant writing.

The last movement, famous among violinists, is a perpetual‑motion challenge in E‑flat major. “It’s quite fast, and it just goes on and on,” Sorrell says. “The violin players can probably play this movement practically in their sleep — because they have to.” But the challenge is not only technical. Sorrell emphasizes the dramatic dimension that comes from Mozart’s operatic background. “When he’s not writing for voice, the drama is still there in the music. Bringing out the juxtapositions of chords and rhythms is important to bring the whole to life.”

Sorrell has been revisiting recordings as part of his preparation. He cites Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s interpretation as “quite interesting,” though he finds the minuet too fast to feel like a dance. A recent listen to Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic impressed him with its sense of tension and shape. “It brings to life the drama of the way he’s constructed the piece,” he says. Sorrell, of course, will bring his own sui generis approach.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral has long been a home for the Chamber Orchestra, and Sorrell knows how to shape performances for its acoustic. “It is a little more live,” he says. “Sometimes you have to make things a little shorter so they don’t ring too long. But it gives you a sense of the majesty of these works.” The space is especially kind to the human voice, making it an ideal setting for Botero’s performance.

As the orchestra looks ahead to its 40th season, Sorrell hints at what’s to come: Mozart’s Symphonies 40 and 41 on the same program, and a return to a work written for the ensemble by Jean Belmont Ford. But for now, Spring Enchantment offers a fitting close to a strong season — a blend of familiar masterworks, rediscovered favorites and music written specifically for Kansas City musicians.