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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.
Gareth Walters: Can y galon (Song of the Heart)
No. 1. Torri Calon (Heartbreak)
No. 2. Can Olwen i Afaon (Olwen's Song to Afaon)
No. 3. Y Garreg (The Rock)
No. 4. Llawer Gwaith (Many a Time)
No. 5. Can y Fam i'w Phlentyn (A Mother's Song to her Child)
Gareth Walters: Little Suite
I. Allegro
II. Lento
III. Vivo ben ritmico
IV. Allegretto semplice
Gareth Walters: Violin Sonata
I. Allegro assai
II. Lento poco sostenuto
III. Moderato
IV. Allegro energico
Gareth Walters: Berceuse
Berceuse
Gareth Walters: Poisies du soir (Poems of the Evening)
No. 1. L'Ideal (The Ideal)
No. 2. Promenade sur l'eau (Promenade on the Water)
No. 3. Nuit d'ete (Summer Night)
May 2009
“The composer is fortunate in his first singer, soprano Carolyn Foulkes. A pupil of Mary Thomas, who gave the first performance, she brings a voice pure in tone, even in emission, well suited to these mostly tender, meditative settings.”
No. 1. Torri Calon (Heartbreak)
