A new CD featuring recordings of three works by Raymond Deane has been released by RTÉ.

Performed by violinist Christine Pryn and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra (RTÉ NSO) conducted by Gerhard Markson, the disc marks the launch of a new series of recordings devoted to contemporary Irish music in a partnership between RTÉ and the Arts Council.

Ten discs performed by RTÉ’s five performing groups are expected to be released over the five-year life of the series which has been created to build on the success of an earlier collaboration between the broadcaster and funding body resulting in the release on disc of Gerald Barry’s opera The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant in 2005.

The three compositions on Raymond Deane’s new disc — Ripieno, the Violin Concerto and Samara — span the present decade and were all commissioned by RTÉ and premiered by the RTÉ NSO.

Arts Council director Mary Cloake welcomed the new collaboration with RTÉ as a means of ‘ensuring the work of Irish composers is recorded and distributed as widely as possible’.

Raymond Deane’s new CD will be available from the CMC shop shortly.

Posted: 4 February 2008