Taliesin's Songbook / Caneuon Taliesin

Taliesin's Songbook / Caneuon Taliesin (Susan Bullock, Rebecca Evans, Catrin Finch, Gareth Brynmor John, Natalya Romaniw, Elgan Llŷr Thomas, Elin Manahan Thomas, Andrew Matthews-Owen)

TCR031

One of Presto Music's Top 100 Recordings of 2021

Taliesin’s Songbook is an exploration of Welsh song of the 20th and 21st Centuries, featuring unique performances by a range of prominent Welsh artists. Andrew Matthews-Owen, who curates and performs on the album says:

“We offer here a collection of songs, performed by musicians, colleagues and friends united by a passion for music and a love of Wales, written by local and national composers. Welsh listeners will know some of the songs, and most of the composers I am sure. Hopefully they will have their love for some composers reinforced and their sense of curiosity for new names sparked. Listeners from outside of Wales, and outside of the UK, will be able to enjoy and sample some of the beautiful art songs that have been written over the past century or so performed by exceptional singers and sung from the heart. Almost all the texts here are by Welsh writers, some in Welsh and some in English. Their verses evoke landscapes at once epic and familiar, at other times mysterious and untouchable, as well as more personal musings on love, loss and the human condition.”

DILYS ELWYN-EDWARDS

1-3. Caneuon Natur

4. Cloths of Heaven

ALUN HODDINOTT

5. Pedoli, Pedoli

6. Cysga di, fy Mhlentyn Tlws

(both from Four Welsh Songs Op. 38, No. 3)

7. Medieval Carol (Op. 38, No. 2)

ARWEL HUGHES

8. Nid oes un foment

9. Mae ‘mron yn dyner

(both from Menna)

DAFYDD BULLOCK

10. Crib Goch (from Caneuon y Mynyddoedd)

ET DAVIES

11. Ynys y Plant

MARK BOWDEN

12-14. The Soul Candle

RHIAN SAMUEL

15. Yr Alarch

GARETH GLYN

16. Hymn to the Virgin

GRACE WILLIAMS

17. The Loom

HUW WATKINS

18. Eyes look into the well (from Three Auden Songs)

WILLIAM MATHIAS

19. Pan Oeddwn Fachgen (Op. 49)

MORFYDD OWEN

20. Slumber Song of the Madonna

21. Gweddi y Pechadur

MEIRION WILLIAMS

22. Gwynfyd

Piano, Andrew Matthews-Owen (except tracks 15 and 16) 

Harp, Catrin Finch (track 16) 

Soprano, Rebecca Evans (tracks 1-6) 

Baritone, Gareth Brynmor John (tracks 7, 12-14) 

Soprano, Susan Bullock (tracks 8-11) 

Soprano, Elin Manahan Thomas (tracks 15-17) 

Tenor, Elgan Llŷr Thomas (tracks 18-19) 

Soprano, Natalya Romaniw (tracks 20-22)