Review

RTÉ NSO/Maloney at the NCH, Dublin is reviewed by Andrew Johnstone

Another four Irish composers have the honour of choosing the music for a concert in RTÉ's Horizons series. As well as presenting their own latest or dearest scores, the privileged four were asked to document their wider tastes - and perhaps certain influences they have felt - by including pieces by other composers.

John McLachlan isn't loath to stand up and be counted with the best of the rest. He's a much-travelled representative at festivals worldwide, and as director of the Association of Irish Composers he's keenly promoting an international outlook.

His concert included premieres of two pieces he has completed recently, both about 12 minutes long and scored for full orchestra.

Octala (2006) and Incunabula (2007) have purely symbolic titles: their aim is not to tell any story but to explore exclusively musical processes.

The kind of words McLachlan uses of his music - "athematic", "quasi algorithmic" and "statistical" - are reflected in ruthlessly logical sinews and fastidiously clear textures. A first hearing disclosed some distinctive features (a descending chordal motto in Octala, loutish jeering from the trombones in Incunabula). But what really counted was the raw psychological effect.

McLachlan's choice of works by other composers illustrated two extremes of influence - linearity and complexity - between which his own style strikes a via media.

The impression of In Summer (2004) by Japanese composer Jo Kondo depends on how patiently and analytically you're prepared to listen.

It could strike you as little more than a plodding sequence of drab chords, or as a remarkably self-restrained exercise in the subtle variation of a single, slowly shifting sonority.

But there could be only one way of responding to Elliott Carter's kaleidoscopic Three Occasions (1986-9), and that was in awe.

Delivered with verve by Gavin Maloney and the RTÉ NSO, this is music that transcends the notes, and lifts the mind.