Soulful Stones José Suñer Oriola

Mandatory piece Honorary section CIBM Valencia 2019

In the Mussorgsky / Ravel's Pictures from an exhibition style, Soulful Stones describes the contemplation of five of the most significant architectural works of the artist Antoni Gaudí.
1- Smoke Stones (La Pedrera) with its smoky form and located in the Passeig de Gràcia, in the center of the city of Barcelona, ??is described by its abstract forms of the balconies and progressively by all its grandiose and friendly external shape. Inside, it emphasizes its particular door of entrance, columns and patio of lights, playing a motif on the French Horns the nickname of the building also called Casa Milà (E-A, measure 48) Climbing up its fantastic stairs to the terrace where we will meet some curious guards / chimneys, with elegance of their shapes protect the building, finishing the description with the inner windows that could be imagined as a great choir in full concert.

2- Bones & Sharks (Casa Batlló). A short distance from La Pedrera, it appears powerfully as a large skeleton at the base and progressively in its central part balconies that could well be described as shark jaws in the composer's imaginative spectrum (which makes use of and reference to some of his previous works - Vasa, m.34) to suddenly describe inside the game of forms and shadows driven mainly by the Oboe arriving at the main room (m.104) repeating the same process of the previous movement, we will go up its stairs to its highest level, where the chimneys will be represented by scales in the Clarinets, being in this case the custodian element of the building, a huge animal that rests on the top of the building.

3- The Glass Palace (The Episcopal Palace of Astorga). Classic building next to the Cathedral of Astorga (León) in which Gaudí partially participated and that for many problems was stopped several times.It is an intimate and sectional movement, starting at its main entrance, following inside by the Chapel of the Palace (Maestoso m.41), Crypt of the bishop (m.53), Throne room (m.72) and external general view (m.85)

4- The Garden of Souls (Park Güell).The capricious shape of the Elves houses of its entrance starts this movement, walking around, in form of dance (m.3) and showing elements such as the main theme of the second movement (m.33) as well as references to classics such as Peer Gynt (m.35) Following the climb up the stairs to find the most representative element: the mosaic dragon (m.49) played by the English Horn with the SOULS motif (Bb-C-G-Bb) and its fountains (m. 64), Hall of the columns (m.86) and the characteristic viaducts (m.94)

5- The Cathedral (The Holy Family). It is practically the most characteristic Gaudí's building.Introductory variations will take us through the time by which its construction was extended from 1882 to the spirit of the architect (Solo de Cello, m.28), walking from the door of Passion (m.35) to the door of the Sacred family (m.43) to introduce ourselves inside (m.50) being conducted by the main theme (variation of the musical derivation of the architect's surname - Gaudi: G, A, C, D, E = Bb, C, D , F, Gb) along with a popular Catalan piece that represents the social character of Gaudí, concluding with the impressive exterior view of the building.

Commissioned by Blasorchester Siebnen (Switzerland) and its conductor Mr. Blaise Héritier to participate as a free work in The European Championship for Wind Orchestras on May 26, 2018 at the Fine Arts Theater in Brussels.