IR - Can you contain him ?. Review on Illayaraja

I started to listen to IR when I was 15. The first song I heard of his is Nilavae Vaa. Something about that song struck me on the first note. SPB's soulful voice carrying all Mohan's emotions in it. And then how the song starts, with the tabala perfectly coming in. This caught my attention as to how precise and to the spot IR was in orchestration. I really feel that IR has two instruments he loves..the violin(strings) and the flute. The next thing about IR is - No one can beat his introductions to songs. famous examples are : Rakkama (Dhalapathi), Vaan Megam(Mouna Ragam), Poonkatru(Moondram Pirai), Sandhosham entha Sandhosham(Manidhnin Marrupakkam), Vaanam Nammaku Buumi(Anjali). All these and most other songs of his are excellent in introductions. He is one person who has proved to everyone that music needn't have to be in a boxed format. His experience has bought so much to the Tamil Film Industry- like he was the first in the industry to introduce stereo recording. He also introduced the art of cross fading. This is when one track of music slowly fades into another track. He has gone into every facet of music. Till today, Nilavae Vaa is my best song for orchestration. Especially for the song ''Panni vizum irravil'', the sensous number, here IR very cleverly uses a type of cross delay (an effect) for the second BGM. The effect is as if you hear an echo on the Left/Right Speakers one after the other. There is so much to talk about him. Maybe another day...