Sir, – At this time of year in particular, there is great interest in choral music, with concerts of carols and the great choral works taking place in venues ranging from community centres and churches, to our cathedrals and the National Concert Hall. In your edition of December 28th, you featured in your “Ideas for 2016” series the opportunities for people to become involved in choirs at all levels, from beginner to professional. RTÉ Radio has played its part in the growing popularity of choral music with its “Choirs for Christmas” competition, and we have had an opportunity to hear some truly beautiful and uplifting music from the choirs in recent weeks.
The growing reputation of choral music in Ireland was underpinned recently by the extraordinary achievement of the Choral Scholars of UCD, who launched their Invisible Stars CD on December 10th on the prestigious Signum Records label.
The artists on this label include some of the world’s finest choirs and ensembles, and this is the first Irish-based group to record on the Signum label.
The CD was launched by Tim Thurston, a scholar, gentleman, and broadcaster, and presenter of the wonderful weekly Gloria programme devoted to choral music, broadcast on RTÉ Lyric FM on Sunday mornings. For the past 18 years, this programme has been an oasis of calm, serene and beautiful vocal music, presented by a man whose erudition, enthusiasm and knowledge is unsurpassed.
To the shock and disappointment of many listeners, RTÉ has ended the programme, and the broadcast of December 27th was the final Gloria. It is difficult to understand this decision, given the popularity of choral music and RTE's own promotion of it.
Gloria is, however, about more than just choral music; it is about excellence in broadcasting; about challenging the listener to expand his or her interest to far beyond the popular classics; in short, it is what public service broadcasting should be. Is this the issue?
Is it the case that if the content is not immediately and constantly populist, that if its style of presentation is not controversial and provocative, that if much of its content is “sacred” rather than “profane”, that if it does not fit into the dumbing down of the content of broadcast media to which Lyric FM is not immune, that it therefore deserves to be cancelled?
Whatever the reasons, it is a profound loss, and a decision that needs to be reconsidered by RTÉ. – Yours, etc,
JOHN KEOGAN,
Dublin 2.