In 1986, Maestro Ilayaraja came out along with his first ever non-film music album - 'How to call it?' The instrumental album paid respects to Johann Sebastian Bach and Thyagaraja. Now, 25 years later, celebrating the silver jubilee of the album, a concert was organized on the Anna Centenary Library Auditorium by Sabari Raja of Absolute management. Raaga.com was the official online media partner of the event.
Raaga.com & IndiaGlitz conducted a web based contest for the development and gave away free tickets for the entire winners who were all visibly excited for purchasing a possibility to peer one of these historical event that brought together musical legends.
Anil Srinivasan, the classical pianist was the host for the show. The concert began with Bhavatharani rendering 'Janani Janani...' from the film 'Sri Raghavendhra', which was devoted to her late mother Jeeva Ilayaraja. It sparked off what was going to be a scintillating concert that included the superior acoustic live music heard in Chennai within the previous couple of decades.
The concert was conducted by Prabakhar, Ilayaraja's close associate, who has collaborated with him for 25 years and was performed by the maestro's own 40-man orchestra that included an entire string section featuring 20 violinists. Playing the tunes of the entire tracks from the album, the crew set the factors for future instrumental concerts on the auditorium. Before each song, Anil Srinivasan took his time to provide an explanation for unique aspects of the track intimately and enlightened the gang with details about counterpoints, trios, fugues, paritas and polyphony to call a few.
Ambi Subramaniam, the nineteen year old violinist and the son of the legendary L. Subramaniam played the lead and got standing a ovation for the title track. Just whilst you start to wonder how a 19-year old boy can create such a lot magic, the audience was surprised by another youngster, Aadithya Ganesh, a fifteen year old who joined Ambi and likewise played a couple of solos. Rajesh Vaidhya, Veena Vidwan and Kalaimamani recipient also graced the stage and played together with the remainder of the members.
Once the primary section came to an end, the guests of honors of the event, Maestro Ilayaraja and legendary violinist L Subramaniam took stage and gave speeches. Ilayaraja spilled the beans on how all the album was composed and recorded in 3 days back in 1986. Upon the frantic request of the crowd, he also sang a song of his choice in "Sadda Sadda Unnai" about ramanar and was backed by Rajesh Vaidhya with none prior rehearsals or practice.
The second a part of the concert created from Ilayaraja's hit numbers they usually were performed by top singers including Sriram Parthasarathy, Haricharan, Sathyan, Bhavatharani and pa Shalini. The song 'Megam...' from the movie 'Enakkul Oruvan' were by the brothers in Ilayaraja's family - Karthik Raja, Venkat Prabhu, Yuvan Shankar Raja and Premji Amaren.
Watch: Anil On Ilayaraja & 'How To call It'
Watch: Haricharan On Ilayaraja & 'How To call It?'
Watch: Prabhakaran On Ilayaraja & 'How To call It?
Watch: Rajesh Vaidya On Ilayaraja & 'How To call It?'