Maestro Ilayaraja News and Tidbits 2014

**irir123** · 9th April 2015, 12:34 AM

Originally Posted by teja

>IR recording with Philharmonia Symphony Orchestra of London for Rudramadevi BGM

Why? Seriously why? What's the point in going all the way to London, using Philharmonia, write scoresheets for each and every instrument, undergo painstaking efforts to produce a worldclass score - when no one bothers to release the score on CDs or Online outlets? This happened with SriRamaRajyam. Fans had to resort to ripping audio tracks from DVDs. We can expect the same with Rudramadevi, as no one seems to be taking responsibility to release it through proper channel (Karthik Raja, I am pointing to you). Is Philharmonia not bothered either? Why would they work so hard, when their score is not going to be released officially?

Some facts - most Philharmonic Orchestras are NOT doing well economically - particularly those in Europe - the burden of the Euro falling on Germany and a few other countries while the rest of EU, viz., Italy, Greece and even Spain, sucking up the Euro, has left the economies teetering on bankruptcy and philharmonic orchestras are starved of basic funds.

Thus, they come cheap and IR can demand Hungary for those with tighter budget and London for those with a larger budget - the quality may not differ much but they are much cheaper to hire than the orchestras in the US!

Thats how and why IR manages to get this stuff done there, and so does Kamal (for Utthama Villain) - the orchestras in Europe are just happy to have work and food on the table and are not as much concerned about the scores not getting released, which anyway is left to the producer who is in India and owns the rights for the score, and who does not care abt it either since he may not be a musically inclined person.

Btw, even Hollywood composers get their scores done/played by orchestras in Europe for the same reason - cost factor! its much cheaper to fly the composer to Europe and back - for the recording, than hire a US based orchestra!

Thats the sorry state of affairs - not very romantic.

**Google Adsense** · 9th April 2015 12:34 AM

**venkkiram** · 9th April 2015, 01:14 AM

இதுபோன்று அயல்நாட்டு இசைக் குழுக்களைக் கொண்டு தனது இசைக்கு வடிவம் கொடுத்துக் கொள்வது ராஜாவுக்கு மிகவும் பிடித்த ஒன்றாக தெரிகிறது. ரசிகர்களாகிய நமக்கும் இது ஒரு புதிய இசை ஆடை. அணிந்துகொள்வதில் சுகம்தான். எப்படியோ ராஜாவின் வீச்சு ஐரோப்பிய கண்டத்தை கொஞ்சம் கொஞ்சமாக ஆட்கொள்வது நமக்கெல்லாம் பெருமைதான்.

**JamesDap** · 9th April 2015, 05:42 AM

Originally Posted by irir123

Some facts - most Philharmonic Orchestras are NOT doing well economically - particularly those in Europe - the burden of the Euro falling on Germany and a few other countries while the rest of EU, viz., Italy, Greece and even Spain, sucking up the Euro, has left the economies teetering on bankruptcy and philharmonic orchestras are starved of basic funds.

Thus, they come cheap and IR can demand Hungary for those with tighter budget and London for those with a larger budget - the quality may not differ much but they are much cheaper to hire than the orchestras in the US!

Thats how and why IR manages to get this stuff done there, and so does Kamal (for Utthama Villain) - the orchestras in Europe are just happy to have work and food on the table and are not as much concerned about the scores not getting released, which anyway is left to the producer who is in India and owns the rights for the score, and who does not care abt it either since he may not be a musically inclined person.

Btw, even Hollywood composers get their scores done/played by orchestras in Europe for the same reason - cost factor! its much cheaper to fly the composer to Europe and back - for the recording, than hire a US based orchestra!

Thats the sorry state of affairs - not very romantic.

In any case, I guess IR only gets the recording and mixing done in London because of its superior studios. He still uses the BSO. Not aware if he did use Royal Philharmonic for any of his recent soundtracks.

**rajsekar** · 9th April 2015, 08:38 AM

IRIR123 - I beg to differ on your observations about Raaja going to London to complete Rudramadevi background score. The current sound mixing technology and recording techniques have vastly improved in Europe and US. The musicians in Europe have lot more experience in playing their respective instruments besides having good range in delivering different tones. Raaja himself has commented on this aspect when he went to Hungary the last time. These musicians live and die with their instruments and have strong passion for music. In India, we don't see such type of musicians and orchestration. The very fact that majority of our film songs (except for some rare melodious albums) from Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu are third-rate copy cats with terrible orchestration, is a proof of this decay. The average life span of a film song nowadays is 10-15 days. A hit song/ tune can blaze with lakhs of hits and quickly go into oblivion. It is true for western albums too. Piracy and easy streaming of compressed music in MP3 format has taken the soul & juice out of music albums. Audiophile quality music requires audiophile quality equipment to record and deliver the actual soul of the instruments. Raaja believes in delivering the highest quality work in a field which is now reduced to mere copy fields and instant gratification. Raaja wants to deliver a Ferrari performance when rest of the Indian film world is happy with Maruti 800. I would encourage Raaja fans to listen to "Paazhasi Raaja" soundtrack in an audiophile quality receiver and speakers to enjoy his true depth of composition.

It's mind boggling to think that Maestro wrote the entire BGM score for Rudramadevi in Chennai with detailed notations and mailed the entire notes to London orchestra a week before he landed. The one week's time given to each individual orchestra gives enough practice period to play the full orchestra when Raaja is present. What an amazing brain work!!! I salute the Maestro in pulling this off. Even Hollywood music is not recorded this way in LA.

**irir123** · 10th April 2015, 10:00 PM

Originally Posted by rajsekar

IRIR123 - I beg to differ on your observations about Raaja going to London to complete Rudramadevi background score. The current sound mixing technology and recording techniques have vastly improved in Europe and US. The musicians in Europe have lot more experience in playing their respective instruments besides having good range in delivering different tones. Raaja himself has commented on this aspect when he went to Hungary the last time. These musicians live and die with their instruments and have strong passion for music. In India, we don't see such type of musicians and orchestration. The very fact that majority of our film songs (except for some rare melodious albums) from Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu are third-rate copy cats with terrible orchestration, is a proof of this decay. The average life span of a film song nowadays is 10-15 days. A hit song/ tune can blaze with lakhs of hits and quickly go into oblivion. It is true for western albums too. Piracy and easy streaming of compressed music in MP3 format has taken the soul & juice out of music albums. Audiophile quality music requires audiophile quality equipment to record and deliver the actual soul of the instruments. Raaja believes in delivering the highest quality work in a field which is now reduced to mere copy fields and instant gratification. Raaja wants to deliver a Ferrari performance when rest of the Indian film world is happy with Maruti 800. I would encourage Raaja fans to listen to "Paazhasi Raaja" soundtrack in an audiophile quality receiver and speakers to enjoy his true depth of composition.

It's mind boggling to think that Maestro wrote the entire BGM score for Rudramadevi in Chennai with detailed notations and mailed the entire notes to London orchestra a week before he landed. The one week's time given to each individual orchestra gives enough practice period to play the full orchestra when Raaja is present. What an amazing brain work!!! I salute the Maestro in pulling this off. Even Hollywood music is not recorded this way in LA.

please read my posting carefully with the letters in BOLD added now for clarity - "....they come cheap and IR can demand Hungary for those with tighter budget and London for those with a larger budget - the quality BETWEEN LONDON AND HUNGARY may not differ much but they are much cheaper to hire than the orchestras in the US!.."

Quality wise they are likely much better than the Indian counterparts in many aspects as well