Including the first new recordings of Mise Éire (Orchestral Suite) and Nomos Nos. 1&4 in over over 40 years.

Seán Ó Riada’s role in the promotion and development of Irish traditional music is well known, particularly in his work with Ceoltóirí Chualann. What can tend to be overlooked, however, was his ambition to create orchestral music in the European tradition. These compositions predated and, it may be argued, underpinned all of his activities in traditional music. As he said himself, ‘it is my composition that gives meaning to my existence’.

Nomos No.1 and his film score to Mise Éire were the most successful of his orchestral works and are presented on Seán Ó Riada: Orchestral Works in wonderful new performances with the RTÉ National Symphony and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Of Nomos No.1 one commentator, while noting its debt to the European tradition, wrote that ‘…it was unmistakably the work of a great Irishman and could have been written by no-one else’.

Nomas No.4 features Irish pianist Cathal Breslin and is unashamedly modern in conception and in the clarity of the writing for strings. Although it was composed over fifty years ago, there are echoes of Arvo Pärt’s bell-like tintinabulation in some of the piano passages. The other two works on Seán Ó Riada: Orchestral Works The Banks of the Sulán and Seoladh na nGamhan (The Herding of the Calves) are both pastoral in character. These complement perfectly the live bonus track, Noel Kelehan’s orchestral arrangement of Ó Riada’s original piano arrangement of Mná na hÉireann (Women of Ireland) sung by Seán Ó Sé.

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra

The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra plays a central role in classical music in Ireland, through live performance, broadcast and touring. As an integral part of RTÉ, the orchestra reaches a great number of listeners through its weekly broadcasts on RTÉ lyric fm and through its association with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). In addition to its annual subscription season, Horizons contemporary music series, national tours and summer concerts series, the orchestra continues to make a name for itself internationally through its recordings with Naxos, Marco Polo and on the RTÉ and RTÉ lyric fm labels.

In 2004, the RTÉ NSO won the Orchestra and Concerto: CD Première category of the Critics’ Awards in the Cannes Classical Awards for its recording of Joly Braga Santos’ Symphony No. 4 under conductor Alvaro Cassuto. In 2005, Gerald Barry’s opera The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant was released on the RTÉ label to considerable acclaim, as part of a new Composers of Ireland series. This has been followed by CDs of works by Raymond Deane, Seóirse Bodley, Deirdre Gribbin and Ian Wilson, the latter three on the RTÉ lyric fm label.

Highlights of recent seasons have included the complete cycles of Mahler, Shostakovich, Bruckner, Prokofiev, Beethoven and Schumann symphonies, a Brahmsfest, a Stravinsky retrospective, the Rachmaninov Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra and the orchestral song-cycles of Mahler. The RTÉ NSO is currently undertaking the complete cycle of the Mozart and Beethoven Piano Concertos. Additionally, the orchestra has given the world premières of works, commissioned by RTÉ, by composers including Donnacha Dennehy, Jennifer Walshe, Raymond Deane, Jane O’Leary, Philip Martin, Stephen Gardner, Seóirse Bodley, Gráinne Mulvey, Ian Wilson, Fergus Johnston, Eric Sweeney, John Buckley, Kevin O’Connell and Benjamin Dwyer. Collaborations between the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and RTÉ Television have included Rhapsody in the Park, The Symphony Sessions and The Mozart Sessions. In 2011, the RTÉ NSO performed for Queen Elizabeth II during her historic visit to Ireland, appearing with artists including Eimear Quinn and Westlife, and at the final Garden Party hosted by its Patron, President Mary McAleese, and Senator Martin McAleese in Áras an Uachtaráin in July.

RTÉ Concert Orchestra

Throughout its 63-year history the RTÉ Concert Orchestra has been cherished by Irish audiences, whether performing with international stars such as Pavarotti, Domingo, Carreras, Te Kanawa, Katherine Jenkins and Russell Watson or with leading Irish artists ranging from James Galway, Cara O’Sullivan to Sharon Shannon. With an unrivalled repertoire, the RTÉ CO appears at leading festivals, on RTÉ Radio and Television and in the opera house, while its commercial releases are distributed worldwide. The orchestra’s education programme is presented nationwide as the RTÉ/The Irish Times Music in the Classroom series. The RTÉ CO has been heard across the world in seven Eurovision Song Contests and its commercial recordings embrace many styles from the phenomenally successful Riverdance to Duke Special’s I Never Thought This Day Would Come. Recent memorable concerts include Lang Lang and Marvin Hamlisch (both first performances with an Irish orchestra), Casablanca (European Premiere), Bugs Bunny at The Symphony with Warner Bros and performances with Marti Pellow, Brian Kennedy and Paul Brady. In September 2011 the orchestra gave the premiere of Niall Byrne’s score to Guests of the Nation (1935) in The National Concert Hall, Dublin and The Lincoln Center, New York. The RTÉ CO has also performed Handel’s Messiah at the invitation of the Vatican for His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. Film credits include Albert Nobbs and The Island by Brian Byrne, Irish Destiny by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse by Joby Talbot. The orchestra has an extensive discography on the Marco Polo, Naxos and RTÉ lyric fm labels. A recent recording of the opera Falstaff (RTÉ lyric fm) won critical praise: ‘a triumph for singers, conductor, orchestra and chorus alike’ (The Irish Times).