BBC Symphony Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins conductor
Heritage HTGCD 133
These are brilliantly re-mastered BBC recordings from 1996 (Lila) and 1992 (Concerto) by Paul Arden-Taylor. They are a follow up to the recording which came out last month of Sohal’s ‘The Wanderer’.
Lila is a cycle of seven connected movements lasting 50 minutes, and the Violin Concerto is in the three movements and lasts over 25 minutes. So, these are major canvases by this wrongly overlooked master composer.
For me, the pleasure of hearing my old Guildhall colleague, the late and much missed Sarah Leonard, was considerable as she also sang some of my music as a student. She specialised in contemporary works, and sings (wordlessly) in the stratospherically high tessitura of the last movement. I consider Lila to be a masterpiece.
The title comes from Indian Sanskrit, and although it has, as the work as a whole has, several layers of meaning, its main one is how a work of art develops from nothing, perhaps a small idea, and eventually something possibly of great merit is brought forth.
The section titles are Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Ether, Consciousness, and Yoga. The language is utterly eclectic. There are moments of violence with heavy timpani and wild orchestral counterpoint as in the Introduction. There are moments of utter quiet and meditation, using quarter-tones and glissandi as in Air. There are moments of gentle lyricism as in Water. Flutes in the Ether movement, miraculously orchestrated, seem to display Sohal’s Indian heritage, and the wonderfully evocative Yoga creates a sense of stasis, and a contemplation of the divine.
By the 1990’s, perhaps as a result of Sohal (1939-2018) having lived in the wonderful Scottish landscape, his language had become less hard-hitting. In the Violin concerto there is a luxuriance evident in the orchestration, especially in the opening of the first two movements. There is use of colourful percussion, and the solo part is frequently lyrical. Each movement has a cadenza which is often rhapsodic.
The first two movements, although touchingly atmospheric are, for me, a little too similar in mood and harmony. The Scherzo-like finale brings the work more to life and allows it to end, not with a whimper, but with a bang. Xue Wei was called in at the last moment to play the work and he has a rich tone and shapes the often-lengthy phrases with much sensitivity.
It is difficult to speak more highly of the performances, and I find myself deeply wishing that music like this will be given opportunities to be heard live.
Review by Gary Higginson