William Edwards, marimba: Paul Creston 'Marimba Concerto 3rd Movement'
(Track 1)

Marimba player William Edwards is 14 ,lives in Tenby and attends the Greenhill School. He came third in the Barclays Young Musician of Dyfed 2005.

Paul Creston (1906-1985). Born in New York to a poor immigrant family, Paul Creston's, whose real name was Giuseppe Guttoveggio, became one of most widely performed American composers. He was twenty-six before he decided on a career in composition, his formal musical training consisting only of basic techniques of piano and organ. He became a prolific composer, and a highly respected teacher. In 1968 he was appointed Professor of Music at the Washington State College. Without formal training abroad, he was a 'pure' American composer, yet he never embraced a nationalistic style, his inspiration coming from mainstream European music. It was with his First Symphony, composed in 1940, that he came to widespread public attention, the work receiving the New York Music Critics' His lack of academic training probably accounted for the fresh and spontaneous quality of his work. He was essentially a composer of the Romantic era working in the 20th century. The marimba concertino featured here deserves to be more widely played.

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Catrin Price, flute: Francis Poulenc 'Sonata for flute, 1st movement'
(Track 2)

Flautist Catrin Price was 11 when she performed this work. She lives in Bronwydd Arms, Carmarthenshire and attends Ysgol Bro Myrddin, Carmarthen. She was a finalist in the Barclays Young Musician of Dyfed 2005 and took third place in 2004.

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (1899-1963) was born in Paris. His mother, an amateur pianist, taught him to play, and music formed a part of family life. As a young man, in 1918 he was fulfilling his National Military Service but still managed to compose three miniatures. At one time, the best known of all Poulenc's music was the three Mouvements perpétuels of 1918, but his most successful work may be the opera Dialogues des Carmélites. Shown in his diverse musical output, a multitude of influences is one of the distinguishing features of Poulenc's music, which is however recognizable on the hearing of a few bars. Among his formative influences are Igor Stravinsky, Emmanuel Chabrier, and the styles of French popular music and 'café-concert'. In addition to his three operas, Francis Poulenc composed several concerti for organ, harpsichord, and piano, as well as masses, and chamber music with only a few orchestral works. He was particularly fond of the woodwind instruments, and planned a set of sonatas for all of them, yet only lived to complete three: the Flute Sonata which Catrin plays (1956), the Oboe Sonata (1962) and the Clarinet Sonata (1962), works of elegiac beauty and technical perfection.

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Endaf Morgan, piano: George Gershwin 'The Man I Love'
(Track 3)

Pianist Endaf Morgan lives in Bwlchllan, near Tregaron, Ceredigion and attends Tregaron Secondary School. He has also been a finalist in the Barclays Young Musician of Dyfed 2002, playing the tuba, and enjoys choral singing. He is 17 years old. In the present competition he came second.

Neither Ludwig van Beethoven (1771-1827) nor George Gershwin (1898-1937) need any introduction here. The final movement of the 'Moonlight' sonata in C sharp minor is less well known than the first, and full of fire. 'The Man I Love' is one of Gershwin's most famous and popular pieces.

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Lee Mottram, clarinet: Gerald Finzi 'Five Bagatelles, no 1'
(Track 4)

The Barclays Young Musician of Dyfed 2005, clarinettist Lee Mottram is 18 years old lives in Pembroke and attends the Greenhill School, Tenby. Following the final of the competition, he performed at the St David's Cathedral Festival in its Young Musician Platform playing, among other items, the première of Kinetic, a work commissioned by the Young Composer of Dyfed trustees especially for the occasion from Jack Westmore, the Young Composer of Dyfed 2006.

The music of Gerald Finzi (1801-1956) is rooted in the tradition of Elgar, Parry, Vaughan Williams and those composers in the opening decades of the century for whom, like Ivor Gurney, song writing was a principal means of expression. About two thirds of his music is vocal and this gives the clue to the most individual characteristic of Finzi's art - his response to words - which results in music that seems inevitably, and effortlessly, to be at one with the poet's thought. The Five Bagatelles op.23 were written for clarinet and piano between 1938 and 1943. The Prelude is the first of the five, the other being 'Romance', 'Carol', 'Forlana', and 'Fughetta'.

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