‘Throughout, there is a sense of a composer completely at one with the piano’s sonic capabilities, from plangent, sombre notes deep in the bass to the bell-like clarity or delicacy of the high treble register. The piano is a percussive instrument and Sohal utilises this with arresting effect in, for example, the opening piece, A Mirage, a work of some 13 minutes in which notes tumble across the keyboard, each with its own dynamic and colour. It’s a work of complex textures and emotional profundity…

Despite the fiercely virtuosic complexity of Sohal’s music, pianist Konstantinos Destounis rises to its physical and emotional challenges to bring persuasive colour and clarity, control and sensitivity to the pieces on this recording.’

‘This concert… also included a more primitive and exotic, and yet more directly accessible novelty by an Indian composer who should be watched. Naresh Sohal’s pungent and well-proportioned Aalaykhyam suggested a musical ear and imagination out of the ordinary.’

‘I was scheduled to conduct the first performance of Naresh Sohal’s Lila in October of ’96, but became ill and was unable to do so. Instead, I listened to the premiere in bed in hospital! I knew what to expect, of course, but even so the piece made an overwhelming impression on me, as it clearly did on the audience as well.

The shape of the work is relatively simple – a series of interconnected episodes each with its own distinctive character, some reaching massive climaxes, others whispering their message; what is remarkable, however, is the sense of inevitability in the progress from one idea to the next, culminating in the spiritually pure and elevated final section where the answering melismeta in voice and orchestra achieve a transcendence all too rarely found… I believe it is probably Sohal’s finest accomplishment to date.’

‘Naresh has had a great success with this work. It hangs together like a tapestry. It works absolutely as intended. And the musicians love it.’