IR concerts, TV shows and Interviews ...

[kingvj]

I was at the concert and had the oppurtunity to witness the Maestro live. One word I can express about the experience is, WOW...!!

app_engine, I am sure that IR used live instruments instead of using sync recordings or whatever. This was evident from the songs Áasaya kaathula and Maasi Maasam in which the beats were not the originals but something similar, which I thought was OK.

Singers who are usually known to go out of the track and sing their own (like SPB, Hariharan) stuck 95% to the original track.

IR was so intensely concentrating on his string sections getting their act right that he himself forgot the cue while singing the 'Naan thaedum' song. Unless they got it right, he didnt allow the orchestra to get away as evident from 'Senthoora poovaey' song.

The fitting finale was the 'Veettukku veettukku' song. He really does know what the audience wanted. When the audience was merrily clapping its way, he gestured the audience to be silent (like, 'hey, i know you'll love this') and listen to the string section as a 'special-for-concert' improvization.

The gentle rib on Yuvan had the audience in splits.

Sivamani was awesome..!

'Sundari kannaal oru saedhi' was easily the pick of the show, for its sheer magnanimity of the score and the way it was reproduced on stage.

It was my friend who started the 'Once more' shout for 'naan thaedum' song.

During 'Pothi vacha malliga mottu' song, it was amusing to see SPB mudhugu-theichifying IR as he sang 'konjam maranju paakkavaa, illa mudhugu theikkavaa'..!!

Shreya Ghosal was the 'little-kid-who's-afraid-of-her-master' thing. We were amused all the time when she was on stage doing some 'over enthu' stuff and IR glaring at her.

When the audience wanted once more of the 'Naan thaedum' song, Manjari who accompanied IR as the female lead singer, unknowingly went backstage. As IR started all over, and even the interlude was over, but Manjari hadnt come back. IR, timingly, went 'enakku vaeru vazhiyillayae' in the same tune as the charanam. The audience applauded in approval and Manjari joined him to continue.

More later, if I find time to type..!

[alwarpet_andavan]

Some questions to those present for the show:

-Orchestration exactly original mAdhiri irundhadha, or were there any instrument changes?

Mostly original mAdhiri irundhadhu, with a few changes. For example,
a) Mandram vandhu was accompanied by bongo/congo(?) drums and the way the drumming starts in the beginning was slightly different from the original (Sivamani). In addition to Sivamani on the acoustic drums [and lots more of his stuff ], there was also one person playing the drum pad.

-Any improvisations (or on-stage-variations) by other singers? Like Balu...or was everyone trying to sing exactly like on the original...

Balu Sir did improvize a bit [Pothi Vacha malliga mottu, for example]
And Hariharan also improvized a wee bit....

-what were the other pronunciation goof-ups (`kANamal ennai thodudhE' being one reported)

Needless to say, Yuvan would have surely goofed up his pronunciations when he accompanied Raaja (along with Karthik Raja) in "Janani Janani" but his voice was not heard clearly over Raaja's .
Also, he said "alaikkiran" instead of "azhaikkiran" in the remix thing, which didn't surprise me at all...
Shreya and Sadhana weren't all that bad in their pronunciations, especially considering the fact that it was a LIVE show...

-How did the substitutes fare in comparison with original singers for SJ, KJY songs...any better performances?

IMO, Shreya was brilliant when she sang "Kaatril Endhan Geetham" though SJ was missed....
And Madhu Balakrishnan was terrific in "Aagaaya vennilave" [that song goes from LOW to HIGH in one line]..
I thought Swarnalatha could have done better in "Aasaya kaathula"....

-Did the orchestration for old songs create any feeling like 'ippO uLLa nalla recording equiments vachu, more or less original notes& instrument'ai maRupadi oru muRai record paNNinAl evvaLavu nallA irukkum...?'

I missed the original orchestration sorely in "ninnukkori varnam" [though Chitra and Sivamani were terrific] because you could hardly hear the drums & the bass guitar [probs with the sound and not the orchestration]. However, the electric/rhythm guitar was replaced with the keyboard which didn't do full justice to the song, IMO....

[vijayr]

Thanks for the detailed reviews.

"Also, he said "alaikkiran" instead of "azhaikkiran" in the remix thing, which didn't surprise me at all..."

none of his kids get the "la" and "La" right. avangaLukku shreya Ghosale parava illa.

[alwarpet_andavan]

"none of his kids get the "la" and "La" right. avangaLukku shreya Ghosale parava illa."
Absolutely [but Bhavatharini's pronunciation is not bad....]

Reminds me of 'Thengai' Srinivasan's interview in "Thillu Mullu" where he says "La-navum varadhu, sha-navum varadhu zha-navum varadhu!"

[app_engine]

aa
`ellAm eye wasppA'nnu solRa Subhramanya Bharathi'ai OrmappaduththiyathaRku nandRi

Thanks also for your clarifications to the questions that I raised...

[app_engine]

http://www.chennaionline.com/music/E...layaraja01.asp

A balanced review...written with some insight...

[vijayr]

Another good one from The Hindu
http://www.hindu.com/fr/2005/10/21/s...2100140200.htm

[Shankar]

aa

<digression>
another interesting dialogue from the same scene
--------------------------------------------------------------
thengai: engE nAn solradha apdiyE sollunga - Oru kattu sullila oru sulli kona sulli
subramanya_barathi: vENdAm sir, risku
--------------------------------------------------------------


<end digression>

[mythila]

Iam sure the audience might have been mighty disappointed with the SPB-Phobia of IR. With SPB's towering presence, one would have expected atleast a few of his classics like "thakitathadhmi" or "iLaiyanila" or "ponmaalai pozhudhu" or "thogai iLamayil" . I doubt which fan would have opted for dumb songs like "enna solli" or "mayil pola" or "oLiyile therivadhu" over these

[Sanjeevi]

Iam sure the audience might have been mighty disappointed with the SPB-Phobia of IR. With SPB's towering presence, one would have expected atleast a few of his classics like "thakitathadhmi" or "iLaiyanila" or "ponmaalai pozhudhu" or "thogai iLamayil" . I doubt which fan would have opted for dumb songs like "enna solli" or "mayil pola" or "oLiyile therivadhu" over these

what you are thinking mythila?
Why even many IR fans underrate IR's new songs? What is the reason?.
I like very much oliyile therivadhu as like as IR's 80s song.