Composer: Gareth Walters
Performer: Carolyn Foulkes, Wendy Dawn Thompson
Orchestra: London Concertante
Conductor: Gregory Rose
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0090
Release: 2008
Size: 265 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Can y galon (Song of the Heart)
01. No. 1. Torri Calon (Heartbreak)
02. No. 2. Can Olwen i Afaon (Olwen’s Song to Afaon)
03. No. 3. Y Garreg (The Rock)
04. No. 4. Llawer Gwaith (Many a Time)
05. No. 5. Can y Fam i’w Phlentyn (A Mother’s Song to her Child)
Little Suite
06. I. Allegro
07. II. Lento
08. III. Vivo ben ritmico
09. IV. Allegretto semplice
Violin Sonata
10. I. Allegro assai
11. II. Lento poco sostenuto
12. III. Moderato
13. IV. Allegro energico
14. Berceuse
Poisies du soir (Poems of the Evening)
15. No. 1. L’Ideal (The Ideal)
16. No. 2. Promenade sur l’eau (Promenade on the Water)
17. No. 3. Nuit d’ete (Summer Night)
Born in Swansea, Gareth Walters received early encouragement from Benjamin Britten, who visited his family home. His studies in Paris in the 1950s with Jean Rivier and Olivier Messiaen helped give his music elegance and clarity, to which his own Welsh heritage adds a tinge of Celtic colour. Gareth Walters spent most of his professional life at the BBC and has been composing fulltime since his retirement. Cân y galon (‘Song of the Heart’) is a setting of five Welsh poems commissioned by BBC Wales in 1970. The singer in the first performance of ‘Song of the Heart’ was the Welsh soprano Mary Thomas, the teacher of the soloist on this recording, Carolyn Foulkes. The booklet contains the composer’s own notes on the music, the full song-texts in Welsh and French and Gareth Walters’ own translations into English. All these works are receiving their first recordings.