News

Current

New Performance: Glasgow 14 June 2008

 

2nd String Quartet to be played by the Edinburgh Quartet at Glasgow University Concert Hall.

 

New Performance: Toronto 14 June 2008

 

Zorana Sadiq sings Three Songs from Gitanjali with Talisker Players at Luminato Festival, Toronto.

 

 

Zubin Mehta Commision

 

Naresh is currently working on a piece for narrator and orchestra. This deals with the message at the heart of the Bhagavad Gita, the Song of God, about duty, as represented in the conversation Arjuna and Lord Krishna on the battlefield at Kurukshetra. Arjuna is overcome with anxiety and grief at the prospect of killing his enemies when he realises that many of them are his own relatives, friends and teachers.

 

‘This is a very important text text,’ says Naresh. ‘It encapsulates many key aspects of Hindu philosophy. I am approaching it in such a way that the text will always be clear for the audience.’

 

The work is a commission by the conductor Zubin Mehta, and will be premiered in 2008 by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. (On this occasion, the text will be in Hebrew.)

 

Previous

Performance: Tokyo 11 June 2008

 

THREE SONGS FROM GITANJALI to be performed by the Soprano YUMI SATAKE with string quartet and tabla of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in Tokyo on June 11, 2008.

 

 

Tribute to Dennis Day

 

Dennis Day died on 3rd November 2007. Dennis founded the Naresh Sohal Society in July 1999 with the support of Vinay Relan. He was first alerted to my music by Eileen Creak, his friend and companion, who had heard a performance of Satyagraha at the Barbican.  He actively sought me out to be able to hear my work for himself, and having heard, became a passionate advocate. He established the society to promote greater awareness of my music, to undertake recordings and to increase the number of performances my works receive.

 

This was an ambitious remit, but Dennis set about it unwaveringly and persisted until poor health overtook him. In April 2000, the society celebrated my 60th birthday with a concert at St. John’s Smith Square, London. The programme consisted entirely of my work, and included Shades IV with Rivka Golani as the viola soloist, a remarkable performance of Chiaroscuro II by the ConTempo string quartet and a new piece, Concertino for violoncello and strings. For my 65th birthday the society organised a concert in Hitchin. Dennis also managed to achieve a performance of Songs of the Five Rivers with Hitchin Symphony Orchestra and Sally Silver as the soloist.

 

Dennis’s other passion was a commitment to furthering the careers of talented young musicians. Through them, he secured performances of many of my works including, at the last concert he organised, the second string quartet played by the Vardanyan string quartet.

 

The society produced a CD of my chamber work, and Dennis set about writing my biography, a labour of love which consumed many tapes, writing pads and CDs. He even travelled to India (hating every minute of it) to visit the places that had been important to me in my youth to be able to understand the forces that had influenced me.

 

Lastly, he made a nuisance of himself at the doors of the Great and the Good. He was unable to shift the great tectonic plates of the arts establishment, but his role as a gadfly, constantly niggling those who had other agendas will be forever remembered.

 

Dennis was a man of courage, commitment and devotion, determined to do what he thought was right in my cause, unafraid to enter the hallowed corridors of power and ready to seize an opportunity when he saw one. I shall be forever grateful for his friendship, admiration and loyalty. Rest in peace, Dennis, wherever you are. – Naresh Sohal

 

20th and 21st November 2007 Performances of Three Songs from Gitanjali and Poems of Tagore II, by the Talisker Players, Trinity St. Paul’s Centre, Toronto

 

18th October 2007 - performance of Naresh's string quartet no.2 by the
Vardanyan String Quartet, at St. Andrew's Catholic Church, Hitchin.     Other
works in the programme: Schubert, Quartettsatz in C minor; Puccini,
Chrisantemi; Mozart, string quartet in F major, K590. A concert   sponsored
by Hitchin Music Matters.

 

27th September 2007 Performance of Duo for ‘cello and flute, by Rohan de Saram, ‘cello and Carin Levine, flute, at the Wonder Site, Tokyo, Japan.

 

3rd November 2006  - The leading South African soprano Sally Silver was joined by the renowned Medici Quartet and world class tabla player Sanju Sahai for a special concert at the British Museum.  They performed Three Songs from Gitanjali (settings of poems by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore),  and Poems of Tagore III. The programme also included a tabla solo and Ravel’s string quartet.

 

The concert was part of a series of exhibitions, installations and performances entitled Voices of Bengal. The season drew on the Museum’s extensive collections from the region of modern West Bengal (India) and from Bangladesh, and included an exhibition of Tagore’s little-known paintings.

 

Naresh gave a talk about his longstanding interest in Tagore’s poetry, describing how the poet’s constant yearning for an exalted experience of the Divine had always had an appeal for him, and how he had taken many opportunities to set the poet’s work to music.  Naresh said that one hoped that Tagore did, in the end, achieve the ultimate experience that he sought, and that it was inspiring for others to believe that he did. However, having looked at some of the poet’s later paintings, which seemed dark, troubled and grotesque, he wasn’t so sure that the poet had fulfilled his quest.

 

February 2006 – Naresh visited the Pan-Asian Music Festival at Stanford University, California, USA, where he was a guest composer. Stanford Symphony Orchestra, conductor Jindong Cai, performed Songs of the Five Rivers. The soloist was soprano Nikki Einfeld, and tabla soloist Sudev Sheth.

 

Naresh gave an illustrated lecture on his life and work explaining, for example, his use of quartertones in his earlier pieces. Prior to the concert itself, Naresh spoke to the audience about the significance of the Sufi poets Bullay Shah and Waris Shah, whose poetry he had used in Songs of the Five Rivers. He urged the audience not to struggle to find meanings in contemporary music, but to listen with ‘open ears’.