Recently released on the RTÉ Lyric FM label, Volume 7 of the Composers of Ireland series features the Belfast composer Stephen Gardner. Gardner joins John Kinsella, Gerald Barry, Raymond Deane, Seóirse Bodley, Deirdre Gribbin and Ian Wilson on a project promoting the orchestral works of Irish composers.

There are three works on the CD, Hallelujah, Never… Never…Never and Lament, all performed by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra under conductors Gerhard Markson and Gavin Maloney (Lament). 

The cover image above, a detail from Simon Norfolk’s photograph The ministry of planning, Baghdad, reflects the motivation for the recording’s title track, which Gardner composed in response to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Never…Never…Never… is Gardner’s ‘musical interpretation of an imaginary painting’ by Frances Bacon of Ian Paisley. The title comes from a speech that Paisley made against the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985. Lament is written in response to the death of Gardner’s niece.

Listen below to extracts from all three works.

rte.ie/lyricfm