Stone Records presents two of the UK's finest musicians, Roderick Williams (baritone) and Sioned Williams (harp) in a superb performance of Michael Stimpson's Dylan, a biographical song cycle of Wales's most renowned poet, Dylan Thomas. Through his own wonderful texts and poems, Dylan's life is traced from his childhood in Wales, through his fiery marriage to Caitlin and love of alcohol (Bottled God), to his untimely death in New York in 1953. Dylan is paired with The Drowning of Capel Celyn (Boddi Capel Celyn) for solo harp, a work Sioned commissioned from Michael to mark her 60th birthday. Capel Celyn, a village near Bala in North Wales, was flooded in 1965 to create a reservoir for Liverpool. People were devastated as the water rushed into the valley, drowning the Chapel, Quaker Meeting House, Post Office, and a number of cottages. Set in five movements, the work evokes Capel Celyn in first light, the marching protesters and the violence of the flooding.
"a superb performance of a winning work"
Classical Music
"Stimpson's settings of the poetry and prose enhanced the imagery, the mystery, the dark moods, the wartime horrors and the enigmatic verses dedicated to his wife Caitlin"
Musical Opinion
"Roderick Williams’s performance of all this is, quite simply, superb"
MusicWeb International
"The impeccable, sensitively shaded playing by Williams, and the addition of a substantial work to the limited original repertoire for baritone and harp, make this CD an important disc to add to your collection"
Harp Magazine (UKHA)
Dylan & The Drowning of Capel Celyn
- Dylan – I. The Beginning
- Dylan – II. Genesis
- Dylan – III. New Horizons
- Dylan – IV. Caitlin
- Dylan – V. Bottled God
- Dylan – VI. War
- Dylan – VII. Laugharne
- Dylan – VIII. The Thin Night Darkens
- The Drowning of Capel Celyn – I. First Light
- The Drowning of Capel Celyn – II. Wheels of Treason
- The Drowning of Capel Celyn – III. Flooding
- The Drowning of Capel Celyn – IV. Sunken
- The Drowning of Capel Celyn – V. Farewell