to André Timbert
For Symphony Orchestra
Commissioned by the Orchestre Universitaire de Picardie
Created 6th November 2000 in Dortmund
Duration: 11 minutes
The legend of the titan Prometheus and his descendants: the Prometheides quickly makes its mark as an amazingly modern and humanistic theme rich in highly contemporary deep symbolic meaning.
We know Prometheus in chains, but Prometheus was also the torch-bearer of civilisation, the conquered insurgent, who, by his knowledge alone, tore from Zeus the recognition of a new freedom; once again this is symbolic of the action which wants to change the world in the face of contemplation and resignation.
We can see, even in the 21st Century, how the Promethean myth can still bring us to reflect on the relationship between nature and civilisation, between daring and respect; the rebellion of man the adventurer, creator of a new humanity. It is, finally, the ancient struggle between obscurantism and critical intelligence.
This myth has inspired a whole plethora of writers (Goethe, Nietzsche, Shelley, Gide, Victor Hugo, etc.) and composers (Fauré, Schubert, Scriabin and Beethoven in the concluding theme of his “Eroica” symphony).