Highlights - Saturday 16th May to Friday 22nd May

DAYBREAK WITH EVONNE FERGUSON

Evonne Ferguson will be up with the early birds to ease you into the weekend with her selections of music from across the centuries plus news and weather and the beginning of a new series of ecologist Anja Murray's Nature File at 9.15

Nature File Episode 7: Golden Plover

Golden Plovers are speckled gold and black, like the peaty upland where they breed. This week's Nature File explores these most delicate of our breeding waders.

RTÉ lyric fm, Saturday 16th May, 7am-10am

MOVIES AND MUSICALS WITH AEDÍN GORMLEY

This afternoon, Rachel Zegler sings her heart out from the balcony in both Evita and West Side Story. We visit Scotland with the animated feature Brave and James Horner's score from Braveheart, plus a stop off in Spain with Pedro Almodóvar's film Talk to Her. Elaine Stritch sings Noel Coward's Why Do the Wrong People Travel, and we remember Bette Davis in the melodrama Dark Victory scored by Max Steiner.

RTÉ lyric fm, Saturday 16th May, 1pm-4pm

VESPERTINE WITH ELLEN CRANITCH

Shiraz is the brand new album from vocalist and oud maestro Dhafer Youssef. His most personal album to date, it reflects his life journey in music, his love and gratitude to life, and most centrally, his devotion to his wife, the Shiraz of the title. Besides the very personal story behind Shiraz, the music of the album has a cultural relevance that might be more important today as ever before: it embodies the dialogue between heritage and modernity. I'll explore this and much more on Vespertine this Sunday night.

RTÉ lyric fm, Sunday 17th May, 9pm-12am

AMBIENT ORBIT

The Ambient Orbit playlist is curated this week by Neil O'Connor who has produced experimental electro-acoustic music under the name Somadrone and more recently, Ordnance Survey. Turas, an album produced by Ordnance Survey in 2023, presents electronically processed field recordings captured with both analog and digital devices at passage and wedge tombs around Ireland. Neil brings his unique understanding to craft a mix of ambient sounds that allows the listener to reset and escape the noise of everyday life.

RTÉ lyric fm, Monday 18th May, 12am-1am

THE FULL SCORE WITH LIZ NOLAN

This week on The Full Score we'll hear highlights from Chamber Choir Ireland's recent concert, To Star the Dark, with Gabriel Crouch making his debut as Artistic Director. In partnership with Clonmel's Finding a Voice festival, the programme spotlights women composers, with works by some of the brightest lights in choral music today including Amanda Feery and Emma O'Halloran.

In our concert Accademia Bizantina, conducted by Ottavio Dantone, perform works by JS Bach, Telemann and CPE Bach. Liz Nolan presents a showcase of unabridged musical masterworks, featuring live recordings of Irish and international performers, plus selections from the latest CD releases.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D, BWV 1050
Telemann: Concerto in E minor for Flute and Violin, TWV 52:e3
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Flute Quartet in A minor, Wq. 93
Johann Sebastian Bach: Concerto for Flute, Violin and Harpsichord in A minor, BWV 1044
Marcello Gatti, baroque flute
Alessandro Tampieri, violin
Accademia Bizantina
Ottavio Dantone, harpsichord and direction

RTÉ lyric fm, Monday 18th May, 1pm-4pm

NIALL CARROLL'S CLASSICAL DAYTIME

Niall Carroll plays music from the heart of the classical repertoire with Sounds on Screen, a piece from either the big or the small screen at 11am, and at midday each day Niall chooses his Five of a Kind. This week Niall chooses five pieces by the Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály.

RTÉ lyric fm, Tuesday 19th May, 10am-1pm

THE FULL SCORE WITH LIZ NOLAN

This week on The Full Score we'll hear highlights from Chamber Choir Ireland's recent concert, To Star the Dark, with Gabriel Crouch making his debut as Artistic Director. In partnership with Clonmel's Finding a Voice festival, the programme spotlights women composers, with works by some of the brightest lights in choral music today including Amanda Feery and Emma O'Halloran.

Fiachra Garvey, founder and artistic director of the West Wicklow Chamber Music Festival and London's Classical Vauxhall, continues to enrich the chamber music scene at home and in the UK with imaginative programming. Today's Full Score concert comes from his recent recital in Wigmore Hall and features a compelling pairing of sonatas by Beethoven and Rachmaninov. Liz Nolan presents a showcase of unabridged musical masterworks, featuring live recordings of Irish and international performers, plus selections from the latest CD releases.

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Op. 109
Rachmaninov: Piano Sonata No. 1 in D minor Op. 28
Fiachra Garvey, piano

RTÉ lyric fm, Tuesday 19th May, 1pm-4pm

LORCAN MURRAY’S CLASSIC DRIVE

Classic Drive brings you the perfect musical soundtrack, including Lorcan's Pick of the Week: Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 and Wagenaar: Cyrano de Bergerac. Lahav Shani and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra record Dvorak's much-loved Symphony No. 9 'From the New World', paired with a rarely heard work dating from 1905, the concert overture Cyrano de Bergerac. The listeners choose the playlist with a themed midweek choice. And with news, weather and sports, Lorcan's with you all the way!

RTÉ lyric fm, Wednesday 20th May, 4pm-7pm

MYSTERY TRAIN WITH JOHN KELLY

Mystery Train is a nightly journey through the many wonders of recorded music - from its vintage glories to the latest sounds. Essential listening for the discerning music fan.

RTÉ lyric fm, Thursday 21st May, 7pm-9pm

AEDÍN IN THE AFTERNOON

Superb violin playing this afternoon from French violinist Esther Abrami and a new recording of The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams from Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto. Ella Fitzgerald and Stevie Wonder duet, Alison Krauss joins The Chieftains, a lesser-known film score by Maurice Jarre and a selection of serenades from Tom Waits, Tchaikovsky and Manuel Ponce.

RTÉ lyric fm, Friday 22nd May, 1pm-4pm

RTÉ LYRIC LIVE WITH PAUL HERRIOTT

Paul Herriott brings us some of the most promising Irish musical talent from the 2025 Freemasons Young Musician Competition Final with recital performances by Kwan Yee Lim (piano), Shane Quinn (viola), Brian Cott (trumpet) and Mickey Glen Tomas (piano).

RTÉ lyric fm, Friday 22nd May, 7pm-10pm