Kansas City Symphony: Robert Spano - Songs Of The Sea

Kansas City Symphony: Robert Spano - Songs Of The Sea at Helzberg Hall - Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

One ocean, two composers, and a striking change of perspective. At Helzberg Hall on May 8, Robert Spano conducts the Kansas City Symphony in a program that places you inside the changing moods of the sea—first through Britten's vivid orchestral drama, then through Vaughan Williams' sweeping meditation on human longing.

Britten's Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia from Peter Grimes shift between dawn light, moonlit calm and crashing storm. Together, the excerpts let the orchestra move between dawn, moonlight and storm without a single sung word. Each change gives Britten's sea a different character.

Then Vaughan Williams turns the ocean into something larger. A Sea Symphony sets Walt Whitman's poetry for soprano Angela Meade, bass-baritone Ryan McKinny, the Kansas City Symphony Chorus and full orchestra. Whitman saw the sea as a mirror of the soul—restless, infinite, pulling us beyond ourselves. The chorus sings throughout, giving those ideas the force of many voices joined together. Meade and McKinny add personal weight, making Whitman's grand vision feel immediate and human.

Together, the soloists, chorus and orchestra give Whitman's sea imagery both human scale and immense reach. Britten's shifting weather and Vaughan Williams' searching poetry make this a program of two distinct ocean journeys.

Britten's dramatic seas meet Whitman's ocean poetry through orchestra, soloists and chorus; get tickets for the May 8 concert.