Ilayaraja's Thiruvasagam first impressions . Review on Thiruvasakam - Illayaraja

I consider myself fortunate to appreciate good music, no matter who the composer and have been lucky to hear different styles of music including western classical forms. From my teens, I have deep respect for Mr. Ilayaraja as a profound yet disciplined composer (in terms of sticking to principles of music and deviating from it in most cases only to add subtllety...not random walks through notes). It's somewhat hard for me to be unbiased in reporting my thoughts on his music, for this reason. Thiruvasagam is well done. I think I would be trivializing its depth by attempting a review here. The richness of the orchestra and voices appealed to me a lot. Clearly, Ilayaraja has been adventurous in a few ways (i) other than his die-hard fans, he has tried to define a new segment of listeners - the purist Indian classical listener will probably find the music ''interesting'' but not at all ''traditional'' (ii) the well trained Indian but western classical music listener might find the music ''interesting'' and well composed but find the tune that the lyrics have been set is very popular music-ish (iiii) the cinema song listener might find the whole experience ''interesting'' but may find it lacking it in ''semma beatu'' (dhanda-nakada-dhanda-nakada type music). The beauty is that by deviating ''just a bit'', but in different directions from each of these segments' natural flair for music, Mr. Ilayaraja has provided an incentive for people to read good literature and see the correlation between the spoken word and the musical form. He has also guided the average music listener to develop the skills to LISTEN as opposed to HEAR music - it is only when this happens that classical music becomes beautiful...when appreciation shifts from what is heard to how what is heard is governed (the scales, the adherence to raagas, the graceful migration from one form to another etc.). When I heard How to Name it? and the first three pieces of Nothing But Wind..., I was simply blown away. At that time, I had no idea who the composer was (I knew Ilayaraaja, but did not know he had composed the tunes, as I heard them at a friend's house). Mentally I had assigned such a high potential to Ilayaraja's music that after that, I knew composing a symphony for him isn't a big deal. The challenge is in the business - getting an orchestra, finding a recording company etc. The music in those cassettes was enough to move me fundamentally - both the quality of the music AND the realization for the FIRST time that it was Raja's music was the cause. Thiruvasagam of course cannot have the impact of the ''first time'' impact on me, but the music is beautiful. It is going to require me to read more about the poetry and then relate to it at a deeper level - I think that is also the real intention here. The one point where I would suggest an error has been commited.... The initial marketing of the piece as a ''symphony'' has had a bit of a negative impact on my ears, as I did not expect a rendering of the songs in what is somewhat a popular music (hate to use the term here as its not entirely appropriate, but it is somewhat cinematic) style. It is simply beautiful music - not a concerto, not a symphony. Polla Vinayen is a well executed oratorio.

Pros : Beautiful music, provides an incentive for people to develop deeper musical appreciation skills

Cons: Too early to say anything, know too little to say anything here about such work