THIS year’s Composers’ Choice series at the National Concert Hall in Dublin consisted of five concerts running from Sunday 13th to Thursday 17th April. The central concept is that one concert is dedicated to each composer, who is given the choice of programming his or her own music alongside that of other composers, living or dead, who have influenced them or are of interest to them. It was the fourth year of the event and artistically one of the most successful. The National Concert Hall (NCH), which set up and runs the series, seems to have got into its stride in terms of selecting composers for variety of styles and interests and shows no sign of running out of composers with stimulating taste and vision.

For 2003 the selection seemed politically correct in all possible directions (age, sex, prominence, province of origin...). It was surprising, however, to find both Gerald Barry and Ian Wilson in the present series. One would imagine that both would have been programmed before now, so their inclusion made for excellent anchoring. At the other end of the ‘established’ scale was Whispering Gallery, a group of seven young composers programmed on one night. In between were Elaine Agnew and Siobhán Cleary, both up-and-coming and of great interest.

The strength of the series continues to be rooted in the central concept that composers will provide a unique and sometimes pleasingly quirky vision of music that can range over recent and distant past, often uncovering fine rarities. A concert really creates a stir when a mixture that reads pretty strangely coheres beautifully on hearing, which has happened often. Another key strength is that composers are, of necessity, always on the lookout for performers who are genuine about their commitment to new music. So we got to hear not only internationally established groups like Psappha and the Composers’ Ensemble, but also ad hoc ensembles that gel well because of careful selection. It is also much easier to 'get' a composer's own music when they can set out three or more of their works within this wider context.

Gerald Barry opened the series with a fabulously eccentric selection that included Lehár, Strauss, and a weird Stravinsky arrangement of the Marseillaise, with five of his own chamber works. His music managed to become the centre of a beautifully-contrived universe where extremes found a dicey equilibrium. The Barry pieces ranged from 1979 to the 2000s, making a mini-retrospective of his chamber output and showing its relentless progression.

A notable departure from the format this year was the second evening, which was devoted to a composer collective. Judith Ring, Jürgen Simpson and Simon O'Connor from Whispering Gallery curated a show where four other young composers were invited in to provide a total of seven premières. I don’t know if one should expect some kind of aesthetic meeting of minds in such a situation, but in any case that did not happen. Seven extremely diverse pieces based on diverse compositional premises (improvisation, techno-influenced electronic, and acoustic) were put together in a mind-expanding evening. This drew the greatest crowd by a large margin and one can certainly imagine this formula reappearing in future years. Roy Carroll, Brian Bolger, Donnacha Costello and Paul Smyth made up the seven, providing a mostly acoustic evening with notable performances from Malachy Robinson, Roy Holmes, Kate Ellis, Elaine Clarke, Ruth Hickey and the Elysium Trio.

Elaine Agnew in her concert gave an insight into two worlds blended as one: her very motivational educational work and her harmonically concentrated music. She alternated British and Polish works in a selection of music united by a concern for clarity. The programme also featured Snow-Hole for soprano and cello, an NCH commission for the occasion.

Siobhán Cleary unveiled recent string works Carrowkeel (another NCH commission) and It’s ‘d’ Jim, but not as we know it that were fantastically varied in surface, the latter particularly compelling. She also introduced a truly great string quartet piece to the Irish audience: Franco Donatoni’s La Souris sans sourire. She defined this programme as representing ‘the reinterpretation of the string quartet in modern times.’ The outstanding contemporary violinist Darragh Morgan gathered colleagues to make up a quartet for the evening.

Ian Wilson continued his Unterwelt series of pieces with a specially-commissioned work, Involute, that combined areas of sparkling interest with a cooler poetic intensity from solo piano passages. He chose Feldman and Crumb to clue us in further on his aesthetic orientations. Eleven Echoes of Autumn was a methodological turning point for Crumb and throws out questions we are still chasing thirty-four years later.

This series gets it right in many ways: composers (it appears) are the first to hear what is good in other countries, and also know their own best side and who should present it. The support from the NCH is strong, effective and efficient, and of course soundly based in experience. Not only do the composers have full control of forces and repertoire, but the Concert Hall also offers them new commissions as part of the package.

The only clearly problematic aspect of the series was the poor attendances, particularly on the first and last nights. It has been noted elsewhere that the annual scheduling of the series in Holy Week seems to impinge on this, and even to ghettoise contemporary music in some way. But before pointing any fingers in the NCH's direction, it must first be said that the contemporary music public, and composers in particular, should really try a little harder to support these things. Composer attendance was nothing short of feeble. I am left wondering if most Irish composers really think that they (and about two others) are the only remotely good ones. Also, where were third-level composition students, or the performers? Whatever about all that, it may be time for the NCH to try a few changes to get a better crowd. RTÉ’s Horizons series might be a model worth emulating, with concerts spaced out over five to six weeks, starting at 6.30pm and with free entry (a huge number at this series were on complimentary tickets in any case). The NCH certainly promoted this to the same level as other events, with radio, press and mail shots all used to the full, so lack of awareness cannot be the explanation.

One other caveat: why are the composer selection criteria hidden? This is frustrating for composers and needlessly mysterious for the public. It could quite easily be discussed openly in an introduction in the booklet, and/or even thrown open to some kind of tender procedure. In general I often find myself thinking that concert agencies (and sometimes performers) need to remind themselves that living composers have different capabilities and needs than dead ones -- especially where communication is concerned.

In preparing this article I spoke to most of the composers featured this year. All were unstinting in their praise for the support they received from director Judith Woodworth, Lucy Champion and Gavin O'Sullivan of the NCH, mentioning particularly their smooth handling of things, their faith in the project and their flexibility in the three-way dealings between themselves, performers and composers. The opportunity to write to commission and/or deliver premières for such a prestigious event was also greatly appreciated.

It is the eponymous central idea of this series that should be most admired as it is, like the best ideas, simple but original; Composer's Choice is the only festival or mini-festival of its kind in Ireland.