Gareth Walters: Song-Cycles and Chamber Music
The Welsh composer Gareth Walters (1928-2012) studied with Jean Rivier and Olivier Messiaen in Paris in the early 1950s, inheriting a formal elegance which characterised his music ever after, enhanced on this disc by a nocturnal, serenade-like quality. The two song-cycles on this disc — C√¢n y galon ('Song of the Heart'), set in Welsh, on aspects of love, and Poésies du soir, which evoke the calm of summer evenings — share the song-writing clarity of Britten, whose early encouragement galvanised Walters' career as a composer. They enclose the buoyant, Celtic-coloured Little Suite for Flute and Harp, the expansive Violin Sonata and the gentle Berceuse for harp.
Carolyn Foulkes, soprano
Sally Pryce, harp
Adam Walker, flute
Adam Summerhayes, violin
Nicola Eimer, piano
Wendy Dawn Thompson, mezzo soprano
London Concertante, ensemble
Gregory Rose, conductor
Listen To This Recording:
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Cân y galon (Song of the Heart), for soprano and string quartet (1970)
- 1. ‘Torri Calon’ (‘Heartbreak’)
- 2. ‘C‚n Olwen i Afaon’ (‘Olwen’s Song to Afaon’)
- 3. ‘Y Garreg’ (‘The Rock’)
- 4. ‘Llawer Gwaith’ (‘Many a Time’)
- 5. ‘C‚n y Fam i’w Phlentyn’ (‘A Mother’s Song to her Child’)
- I. Allegro
- II. Lento
- III. Vivo ben ritmico
- IV. Allegretto semplice
- I. Allegro assai
- II. Lento
- III. Moderato
- IV. Allegro energico
- Berceuse for harp (1965)
- 1. ‘L’Idéal’ (‘The Ideal’)
- 2. ‘Promenade sur l’eau’ (‘Promenade on the Water’)
- 3. ‘Nuit d’été’ (‘Summer Night’)
Little Suite for Flute and Harp (1960s)
Violin Sonata (1989–96)
Poésies du soir (Poems of the Evening), for mezzo soprano and chamber orchestra (1961)
Fanfare Magazine :
‘After three hearings, the disc may well find itself on my year-end Want List because it has brought me so much pleasure. […]
Walters has a real feel for how to set words, and for the voice, and these cycles would sit comfortably in the repertoire of any major singer, if the major singers were only adventurous enough to find them. The performances here are very good. […]
All of the performances on this disc are more than adequate to convey the quality of Walters’s music, and this disc certainly makes me want to hear more of this composer.’
—Henry Fogel, Fanfare Magazine, July/August 2013