WILLIAM SCHUMAN (1910-1992): A Song of Orpheus for Cello and Orchestra, VIRGIL THOMSON (1896-1989): Cello Concerto, WILLIAM PERRY (b.1930): Jamestown Concerto for Cello and Orchestra.

Description: Schuman's Song dates from 1961 and uses as its main theme a song which the composer wrote in 1944 as part of incidental music for a stage production of Henry VIII. Largely lyrical and intimate in its 23-minute length, the work pays tribute to the Elizabethan period in giving a harp a conspicuous role, standing in for the lute. Film composer Perry's concerto, commissioned for the 400th anniversary of the settlement at Jamestown in 1606, is in five movements closely depicting events and landscape in film-music fashion while Thomson's warm and melodically rich concerto (1945-50) has movements whose titles tell all: "Rider on the Plains" (a vista of rolling prairies in galloping 6/8 time), "Variations on a Southern Hymn" and "Children's Games". Yehuda Hanani (cello), RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra; William Eddins.