When you hear the phrase “French music” your brain likely recalls a certain sound, a certain mood, a certain palette musical colors — a layered shimmering of clustered noted and wide-open chords — a musical language that was dismissed as nonsense by the conservative critics of the late 19th and early 20th century but has since then become easy to translate to the kinds of emotions and memories we experience today.
The Grand Teton Music Festival seeks to foster that “French Connection” with its weekend orchestral program of the same name. Guest conductor Dalia Stasevska leads the orchestra in works by Ravel, Boulanger and Kaija Saariaho, with guest cellist Johannes Moser returning to solo in Lalo’s Concerto for Cello in D minor.
…To wrap up this quick musical visit to France, Stasevska and the orchestra present perhaps the most famous work by Ravel, his exotic 17-minute slow-burn processions “Bolero.”
