Niall Doyle, Executive Director, RTÉ Performing Groups, writes:

I am writing in response to Barra Boydell’s review of Richard Pine’s book Music and Broadcasting in Ireland published in the March-April edition of JMI. Dr Boydell has written an excellent review of what is a large and important document on the history of music in RTÉ, and he is to be commended for it. I would, however, like to correct one inaccuracy.

In the course of the review, Dr Boydell states that ‘…music within RTÉ has evolved to the present situation in which RTÉ supports directly (or in the case of the NSO now less directly) a number of outstanding orchestras and ensembles of which this country can be justly proud…’.

Without wishing to seem churlish in the face of such a compliment, I would like to correct any impression that the RTÉ NSO is in any way less fully or directly supported by RTÉ than it has always been. Since its foundation in 1948 (as the RTÉSO), the RTÉ NSO has been funded and managed by RTÉ as part of its service to the Irish public. It has at all stages of its history been a constituent part of RTÉ, and this is as much true now as it was at any time in the past.

In this, Ireland (and RTÉ and the RTÉ NSO) is not unusual. Some 36 European Public Service Broadcasting organisations run professional orchestras, and their broadcasts of them at home and abroad via the European Broadcasting Union ensure that they reach large national and international audiences and deliver particularly good public access return for public investment. In many cases, particularly in smaller states such as ours, these orchestras are the pre-eminent professional ensembles of their type in their own countries.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate JMI on continuing to provide an excellent magazine. It is always lively, interesting and stimulating, and provides an important forum for debate and discussion. Long may it prosper.