Want to hear what “The Creation of the World” sounds like?
Wednesday, an 18-person ensemble of Grand Teton Music Festival orchestra members will play Darius Milhaud’s “La Création du Monde, Opus 81a,” which premiered a century ago in Paris.
The ensemble performing “The Creation of the World” will be the largest of three groups in the second chamber music concert of the season. It begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Walk Festival Hall in Teton Village. In an orchestra, instruments may cover one another. In a small ensemble, each player has to be on their “A” game, Grand Teton Music Festival Resident Conductor Jerry Hou said.
“Chamber music demands intense listening amongst the musicians,” Hou said. “More responsibility is placed on each player. It is a beautiful dialogue that allows for a lot of spontaneity.”
Hou said he is looking forward to leading Milhaud’s piece.
“Written in the early 1920s, it is one of the earliest pieces to show the influence of jazz,” Hou said. “It has beautiful sonorities and harmonies intermixed with catchy dance rhythms.”
When he isn’t conducting in the Tetons, Hou is the resident conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and an artist teacher of orchestras and ensembles at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. The Taiwanese-American conductor was born in small-town Arkansas and began his career as a trombonist, playing in orchestras both in the United States and Europe. He has also worked with the New York Philharmonic, and he’s even made an appearance on the popular game show “Jeopardy!”
After Milhaud’s piece, the program continues with a six-piece ensemble performing Martinů’s “La revue de cuisine,” and Dvořák’s “String Quintet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 77.”
Though the last piece will only include string instruments, the first two pieces involve instruments from all four sections of the orchestra.
The intimacy of chamber music performances amplifies the “deep sense of connection, commitment, and camaraderie” felt by Hou and other festival musicians.
Chamber concerts are an opportunity for classical music fans to watch musicians forge bonds with each other and play off of their fellow ensemble members as well as their conductor. The give-and-take nature of chamber music reflects the purpose and values of Grand Teton Music Festival as a whole, the conductor said.
“There is an alchemy that is unique to the festival,” Hou said. “We all come to renew our musical vows and share our love of music with the wonderful audience.”
The festival’s chamber music series will continue with new performances almost every Wednesday throughout the summer.
More information about tickets and the chamber series can be found at GTMF.org.
