RTÉ lyric fm 96-99fm Where Life Sounds Better
RTÉ lyric fm Label
RTÉ lyric fm is the only recording label for classical music in Ireland
Our aim is to promote classical music, Irish musicians and composers at home and abroad by creating a commercially available, quality record of how much incredible music is being made in this country.
All our new releases are available online at:
and from music stores nationwide.
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More Recordings from the RTÉ Lyric fm label
Fiachra Garvey - For the Piano - Release date 11th May
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Debut release from one of the most exciting new piano talents in Ireland.
...created excitement, atmosphere and, using different qualities of touch, led his listeners into Debussy's distinctively different musical worlds with supreme understanding. Irish Examiner.
The works on Fiachra Garvey: Music for Piano reveal a musical instinct mature beyond his years. Fiachra selected Samuel Barber's bravura Piano Sonata and his elegiac Nocturne dedicated to John Field to bookend the two central works which are complementary highlights of the 19th and 20th century piano repertoire: Debussy's Pour le Piano and Schumann's Fantasiestucke. The latter is a suite of eight pieces that tentatively relates to the Hero and Leander legend but more fundamentally is among the composer's finest and most moving works for piano.
Composers of Ireland Series
RTÉ Lyric fm with the support ot the Arts Council of Ireland is producing a series of ten discs which aim to make available top quality orchestral recordings of ten contemporary Irish composers. Taken together the collection is a significant document of our thriving contemporary music scene. The most recent release is John Kinsella's Orchestral Works while Gerald Barry, Raymond Deane, Seóirse Bodley, Deirdre Gribbin and Ian Wilson have also had recordings released as part of the series.
Seán Ó Riada: Orchestral Works
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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. 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'.
Frederick May: Sunlight and Shadow
1911-1985 Selected Orchestral Works
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Performed by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Robert Houlihan, this is the first significant orchestral release of the music of one of the most important figures in mid-20th century Irish music. The release coincides with the 100th anniversary of May's birth. In the 1930s May was among a small group of forward looking Irish composers who looked to Europe for inspiration in contrast to the increasing cultural isolationism cultivated by the leaders of the young Republic at that time.
Shower of Pearls: The Music of John Alexander Osborne
A fascinating array of unknown repertoire from the neglected Limerick-born composer, George Alexander Osborne. The result is a definitive collection of delightful piano works and chamber music, given superb renditions by Una Hunt piano, Justin Pearson cello, and Triantán Piano Trio.
Una Hunt: Fallen Leaves from an Irish Piano Album
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RTÉ lyric fm is delighted to release a second CD from Una Hunt that is committed to reawakening interest in neglected Irish composers. Fallen Leaves from an Irish Piano Album gathers together for the first time the many strands of successful piano writing by nineteenth-century Irish composers.
John Kinsella: Orchestral Works
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Volume 6 of the Composers of Ireland series funded by The Arts Council and RTÉ. John Kinsella joins Gerald Barry, Raymond Deane, Seóirse Bodley, Deirdre Gribbin and Ian Wilson on this landmark project promoting the orchestral works of Irish composers. John Kinsella has written over twenty-one compositions for orchestra including nine symphonies, works which have been performed by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and major orchestras throughout the world.
Joyce Songs
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Joycesongs - JAMES JOYCE'S MUSICAL DUBLIN is a celebration of the role of music in the work of James Joyce. June 16th is Bloomsday - the day Leopold Bloom journeys through Dublin in Joyce's novel Ulysses. The book is bursting with musical references and the characters almost sing their way through the novel. Their minds are filled with the musical culture of the early 20th century - popular drinking songs, opera arias, and ballads; there are over 40 references to songs in the Sirens chapter alone. The CD features emerging Irish artists Owen Gilhooly, Elizabeth Woods, Emmanuel Lawler, Daire Halpin, and Franck Dunne recorded variously with pianist Pádhraic Ó Cuinneagáin, and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra conducted by Robert Houlihan.
Masters of the Irish Harp
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Ireland is the only country in the world with a musical instrument as its national emblem. The symbol of the harp is everywhere: on our coins, passports, tax demands and even on the pint glass. It is probably one of our most enduring and recognisable images and today there are more professional harpers and students of our national instrument than ever before. Produced in association with Cairde na Cruite, Masters of the Irish Harpcelebrates the virtuosity of sixteen of Ireland's leading harpers.
One Day Fine: National Chamber Choir of Ireland
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One Day Fine is a sonic journey through the breadth of Irish choral music. This is a recording of compositions from very different eras, cultures and politics, all unified under the direction of the National Chamber Choir of Ireland's internationally acclaimed director, Paul Hillier. The earliest work on the CD Laeta lux est hodierna comes from the 14th century, while the most recent is the witty Everything Is Ridiculous by young Irish composer Andrew Hamilton.
Celine Byrne: For Eternity
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Celine Byrne may have been a late-comer to the world of opera, she was eighteen years old and working as an au-pair in Italy when she first heard opera sung live, which persuaded her to take singing lessons. Scroll forward to today and among Celine's achievements are her Carnegie Hall and Covent Garden debuts, a broadcast to over 200 million people in China, and winning the Maria Callas Grand Prix in 2007. Truly, her star is in the ascendant. For Eternity is her debut cd.
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Aloys Fleischmann: Orchestral Works
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Aloys Fleischmann (1910-1992) was one of the most prominent figures in Irish musical life of the last century. Born in Munich to Irish-based German parents, he studied music in University College Cork and subsequently became Professor of Music there until his retirement in 1980. Drawing on the influence of contemporaries like Bartók and Vaughan Williams, his compositions are firmly rooted in the European classical tradition while also revealing an engagement with Irish folk music.
John Finucane: Clarinet Variations
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John Finucane has wowed Irish audiences for decades with his superlative clarinet playing. Now the legendary Irish virtuoso has committed his work to CD for the first time in his career. John Finucane has been the principle clarinettist of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra since 1995. Yet due to his orchestral, chamber and teaching commitments it is only now that John has found the time to record a CD to centre stage his abilities.
Sample 1 - Rossini- Introduction, Theme and Variations for Clarinet and Orchestra in E flat
Sample 2 - Potter- Fantasy for Clarinet and Strings
Balfe: Falstaff
Michael William Balfe (1808 - 1870) wrote Falstaff for four of the great singers of his day Giulia Grisi (soprano), Luigi Lablache (bass), Giovanni Battista Rubini (tenor), and Antonia Tamburini (baritone). The premiere took place on Thursday July 19th 1838 at Her Majesty's Theatre in London to a packed house with Balfe receiving several curtain-calls. On Thursday September 25th 2008, Opera Ireland and RTÉ celebrated the Balfe's bicentenary by presenting the first performance of the composer's comic bel canto opera Falstaff since its première. This live performance of Balfe's Falstaff is now available on the RTÉ lyric fm label and is a must have for record collectors and lovers of opera everywhere.
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Margaret Burke Sheridan: Un Bel Di
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Soprano Margaret Burke Sheridan (1889-1958) is Ireland's most enduring legend of the operatic stage. Born in Castlebar, County Mayo, Margaret Burke Sheridan made a dramatic debut on the professional stage. At four days' notice while still in vocal training, she was chosen to replace the indisposed soprano as Mimi in Puccini's La Bohème at Rome's Costanzi. She performed with all the greats, including the tenors Aureliano Pertile and Beniamino Gigli, and conductor Arturo Toscanini, and was coached by Puccini himself. Un Bel Di contains fifteen digitally remastered tracks including a live performance from Covent Garden in 1926 and five ballads never brought together on one CD before. This is truly the definitive Margaret Burke Sheridan collection.
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Masters of Tradition
Forty-two of Ireland's finest traditional musicians, recorded in concert 2003-2007. The MASTERS OF TRADITION is a double CD featuring many of the country's finest musicians. Martin Hayes, Denis Cahill, Donal Lunny, Frank Harte, Tony McMahon, Mary McNamara, Peadar O'Loughlin and many more. The force exerted by the past on the present - a definition of the word 'tradition' taken from Webster's dictionary and, in the context of traditional music, a powerful and pithy analysis of the strength and potency of this magnificent art.
This Masters of Tradition CD is all about acknowledging this force.
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