Welsh composer celebrated with new release

Caitlin Thomas

A new album celebrating the work of Welsh composer Gareth Glyn is due to be released later this month.

With its release in 2026, the album celebrates Glyn’s 75th birthday, as well as the centenary of the birth of his father, poet and novelist T Glynne Davies.

Released with Tŷ Cerdd Records, ‘All the Hours We Saw and Other Works’ brings together vocal and instrumental works written across the composer’s career.

The album takes five significant works by Glyn, two of which set texts by his father.

The album’s central work is the song cycle ‘Yr Oriau Oll a Welsom’ (All the Hours We Saw), setting T Glynne Davies’ poetry, and performed by baritone Steffan Lloyd Owen. He performs alongside beloeved Welsh pianist Annette Bryn Parri shortly before her death in 2025.

Cân Herod, another T Glynne Davies setting, provides warnings for the future of stability of the world order. Steffan Lloyd Owen performs alongside players from Ensemble Cymru.

The album also highlights Glyn’s instrumental writing, with two solo piano works and a suite for chamber ensemble.

These include ‘Pianimals’, performed by the late composer Mervyn Butch in a recently discovered Tŷ Cerdd recording, and ‘Caniad y Gloch’ (The Sounding Bell), performed by pianist Christopher Williams.

The release concludes with ‘Morluniau Môn’ (Anglesey Seascape), a chamber work inspired by the landscape of Anglesey, performed by Ensemble Cymru.

Gareth Glyn said: “I’m indebted to Tŷ Cerdd Records for bringing out this album in a year which is such a significant one for me: the year not only of my 75th birthday but also of my father’s centenary.

“Over a period of close to 60 years I set a great deal of his poetry to music – not because he was my father, but rather because I’ve always been affected and inspired by his poems.

“They have a remarkable emotionally-driven muscularity – none more so perhaps than the one chosen as the opening song on this album, with its terrifying closing peroration.

“I’m immensely grateful to all the artists who contributed their stellar talents to this album, and also to Catrin Finch, whose performance of my second harp concerto (Vita Davidis) will be released by Tŷ Cerdd Records in May.”

‘Yr Oriau a Welsom’ (All the Hours We Saw) will be released on 30 January 2026 and will be available on all major platforms.