Raja - Live in Concerts - Madurai Concert Telecast/Videos

[raajarasigan]

Hubbers who went to the show should post the list of songs played

[rajsekar]

Hubbers who went to the show should post the list of songs played

It was a great privilege to attend Maestro's concert in the largest arena in Europe. It was indeed a musical rain (with literally rain showers outside!!!) and forty songs rendered by an incredible array of singers and live orchestra. The Maestro and their sponsors should be greatly applauded in pulling out a spectacular show in London. As I sat through the concert, one song after another without any break (6:00 PM to 11:00 PM), few thoughts came to my mind. I have seen several recorded concerts of Maestro (Rome, Dubai, Chennai-2011, 2005, Toronto, San Jose, Madurai) and the London event was on par with the Chennai 2011 and Toronto concerts. I would like Maestro's concert team to take care of these omissions and make efforts to improve/ fix these issues for the next concert.

1. The concert team should have given some time to introduce the orchestra (at least key players and instrumentalists) many of whom have worked with Maestro since 1977. As Maestro pointed out, there was no need to have a Master of ceremony because he considered that it was a waste of time. At least they can highlight the names in the projection screen.
2. Same goes for playback singers. None of the singers were properly introduced and acknowledged. The singers are very much part of Maestro's musical journey and they deserve our praise and attention. If time is of crunch, they could have used the projection screens to show old images of singers with Maestro and their achievements.
3. Maestro is as usual focused on churning out the best output from the orchestra and the singers. Most of the talking and stories were done by SPB and Kamal. SPB talked about facts like 14 movies were given background scores and song composition was done on time for a Diwali season - this was a mind boggling fact. It's all the more fascinating that all the 14 films had five super hit songs each (70 super hit songs for a single Diwali season). No world composer could churn out hits like this and the audience would greatly appreciate if these statistics were displayed on the screen. Jayachandran spoke about how his three hits songs of Vaidegi K were recorded one after other on the same day. Maestro should be induced to loosen up a bit.
4. London being a city of operas and concerts, Maestro could have played pieces of his Thiruvasagam symphony and/or snippets from Nothing But Wind. These are timeless classics and the audience would have tasted Maestro's vast array of musical composition.
5. As soon as Maestro signed off the concert at 11:00 PM, everyone started walking out without waiting for the sponsor's felicitation and artists recognition. This part could have been moved in between the songs.
6. My biggest grouse has been the sound engineering in O2 Arena. In the past the O2 Arena had spent incredible amount of money to reduce the echo problems, but the inherent shape of the dome tends to create echo if the placement of main speakers is not designed correctly. I could be wrong here, but it appears that Maestro should have an in-house sound engineer or architect to correct echo problems during concerts. Many leading music troupes have similar sound engineering team who would visit the venue much ahead of time and plan the placement of bass speakers and measure echo levels from different seating zones. Several songs had echo problems besides rendering the playback voice level too low. The music score would drown the voice levels.
7. The giant projection screens (two on the periphery and two inside) weren't in sync. The different cameras could have captured the intricate music instruments being played besides showing the playback singer and the stage. Since the arena is huge, the people sitting in the balcony and side, could not view the stage properly. The projection screens is the only means to view what's going on in the stage.

Organizing a major international concert is a big endeavor and Maestro should continue touring the world in the coming months. Let's hear more variety of songs and musical arrangements from his vast collection of 975 albums. I wish SPB and Sailaja had rendered the hit song from Poonthalir - what an amazing rendition of guitar in 1980. The musical score sounds like 2025!!!!. Maestro is way ahead of the time and many Tamil movie directors haven't yet realized this fact. Watching him perform the music show is a rare blessing. It looks like Maestro and Kamal (all his songs from nearly 50 movies which were scored by Maestro) would plan for a major international concert very soon.

[raajarasigan]

kadaisi varikkin song list sollala...

[thumburu]

rajsekar, thanks for a nice review. Could you share few interesting tidbits / events that happened in the show? ; like what Kamal shared about IR, IR shared about singers/Kamal/directors . Is any TV channel relaying this show?

[baroque]

rajsekar
Can't wait for Ilayaraja's return to Bay area, CA with his team!

[svaisn]

Aama yaarum onnu solla matenguraanga

From a friend who attended the show

Superaa irundhudhu ! It was a 4 and half hours show and some very different songs other than his usual collection- shailaja sang oru kili urugudhu , raasave unna nan so well! Some great songs from jayachandran -Kodiyile , raasathi unna but highlight was SPB as always- God he is!

Kamal sang unna vida, kaasu mela with karthikraja,thenpandi seemayile and inji idupazhaga

So many singers were there from past vijay tv shows too!

Kalakkal show!

[naarayanan]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200535576262272

#RajaTheRaja O2 London Concert
Updated song list as of now :
1) Janani Janani - Ilaiyaraaja
2) Om Sivoham - Karthik
3) Oliyile - Karthik & Bhavatha
4) Annakilli Unnai Thedudhey - Chinmayi
5) Amma Endralaikkatha - Madhu
6) Maanjolai Kilithano - Jayachandran
7) Paattuccholli - Sadhana Sargam
Ilayanila - SPB
9) Raasave Unnai Naan - Shailaja
10) Raaja Rajadhi Rajan - Ilaiyaraaja
11) Oru Ragam Padalodu - Madhu
12) Andhimazhai - SPB
13) Katril Endhan Geetham - Chinmayi
14) Rasathi Unna - Jayachandran
15) Kaathirundhu Kaathirundhu - Jayachandran
16) Shenbageme Shenbagame - Sadhana Sargam
17) Aalapol Velapol - SPB
18) Oru kili urugudhu - Sailaja & Bhavatha
19) Aayiram Malargale - Shailaja
20) Tholin Mele Baaram Ille - SPB

[naarayanan]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10153179746240360

[baroque]

S.P.Bala is in forever form with awesome spirit!

[kanna_82]

Hi peeps

I can see that there has been some people from this forum who attented Raaja sirs concert in London as I did.
I have some small clips which i took on my mobile during the show. The beginning of each songs which i recorded until my mobile was out of space.
But I will try to upload them for you, bcos for me it was my first musical concert in my life and that too with my musical God...
The time between 6.30 pm to 11 pm was a trip to heaven which I never will forget as long as I live...!!!
And for me the best song was Rajaa rajaathi raajan intha rajaa from Agni Natchathiram...what a electrifying atmosphere and the way Raaja sir showed his confidence was out of this world...what a day...!!