El Regalo de Gea José Suñer Oriola

Story based on Greek mythology. It describes a beautiful garden belonging to the goddess Hera located at the westernmost point of the Greek world, probably in the Atlas Mountains or on a mythological island. This garden had a tree that produced golden apples that provided eternal youth.

The tree had been a wedding gift from the goddess Gaia (Earth) to Hera, who commissioned the Hesperides, three nymphs of the West (Hesperetusta, Egle and Eritia) to tend the garden. So precious did the garden become to Hera that she sent the hundred-headed dragon, Ladon.

The work is constructed in four sections.

The first section, The Quest, describes the path of departure, the path of uncertainty and the path that will lead to finding his goal.

Ladon, the second section, constitutes Heracles' dilemma of how to overcome the dragon. After the initial thought, the obsession with the dragon becomes more apparent (Con fuoco) until he reaches the point of meditation and searching for ideas for the solution to his problem (Vivace) describing a series of thoughts until the final idea is found, ending in the cry of the dragon's hundred heads and his disappearance in the ashes of his own fire.

The third section, The Nymphs, is the story of a great betrayal, that of a father to his daughters. The oboe shows the sadness of the nymphs when they learn that their father intends to deceive them, which is then consummated with various timbral games.

The last section, Flight and Return, presents an energetic feeling followed by a melodic line which in turn will constitute the counterpoint in the thematic reappearance of the theme of the Nymphs, followed later by the theme of the meeting of the Garden (first section) or Heracles' theme, defined by the brass, to conclude with a coda constructed as a tribute to the composers Reich-Wagner-Respighi-Stravinsky-Shostakovitch.

Duration: 12 - 13'.