IR concerts, TV shows and Interviews ...

[alwarpet_andavan]

. Sound recording or acoustics were not that good. As somebody said, maybe an indoor stadium is not suited for a musical concert.

On the contrary, an indoor stadium is very well suited for a concert, provided the acoustics are good. The balance given to the different sections [esp the string sections] was not good and that is why the sound was not great.
<Digression>
There was a concert in 2001 by Roger Waters [of Pink Floyd] in Bangalore. When it comes to audiovisual special effects, no group can hold a candle to Pink Floyd but on that night, the output and was not enough for the outdoor setting [palace grounds] and the 360 degree surround sound's impact was not that great as expected. And incidentally, most of the concerts he performed in that tour was in indoor stadiums where the effect was said to be mind blowing
</Digression>

[Ravi_odiyur]

Mmm... thanks for the info Alwarpet Andavan. Yes, I had the same thing is mind - acoustics - whether indoor stadium or not!

[vijayr]

I have seen just the first part so far on numtv.com(which seems to be down for the past 2 days)
Ravi_Odiyur, you missed out IR's singing while criticizing Bhava. IR's voice was shaky and had innumerable shruthi losses throughout. Often while singing he would turn around to signal something to his orchestra and bang! would lose the shruthi. I think in naan thedum he was so busy overseeing his orchestra(why couldnt have someone else done this for that song?) that he forgot to start the charanam on time and had to wait for the next beat cycle with a sheepish smile. I didnt like the goof ups by Shreya Ghosal either. In Kaatril varum geethame she wasnt sure when to sing and when not to and kept jumping up and down looking at IR all the time. Singing is the easiest part in such programmes. When the musicians rehearse for hrs and deliver it cant the singers do it properly?

[thops]

well atleast IR's voice has some character...hariharan and bhava should have been banned from singing in this concert...SPB should have sung more songs...

i think shreya goofed up katril varum geethamey due to hariharan, actually all the singers screwed up that song...you have to give her a break...(okay vijayr maybe the wrong person to ask for any such breaks )...i dont think singing in such concerts is easy for the non-tamil singers...she was easily my pick among the female singers of the evening...

okay enough of cribbing...the good things about the concert...(i have seen only the first part in NumTV)...SPB and Shreya come out on top of the singers list...SPB is just in a different league...i am glad he got to sing the pseudo-first song of the evening...it would have been a gross injustice if it had been anybody else...shreya did an amazing job with katril endhan geetham...though sadhana's pronunciation was supposedly better i prefer shreya's voice...

arunmozhi/napolean was great on the flute...i though he was perfect...i am looking forward to listening to jeyachandran and dreading bhava's sendhoora poove...

[kingvj]

If you would hv noted, in the second interlude of 'Sundhari Kannaal Oru Sedhi', after the huge violin/trumphet/drums combo, when the flute took over to finish the interlude, there was applause.

The bass-flute intro for the 'Aasaya kaathula thoodhu vittu' also drew instant applause from the crowd.

[vijayr]

I dont think Shreya's goofup had anything to do with HH. HH joins that song only towards the end.Sure, HH had his usual wacky improvs here and there but him and Sadhana showed their stage experience and competence in general. I guess Shreya probably needs more experience singing Tamil songs on stage. Her voice is good I agree(as is Saadhana's). But I find it hard to believe that we cant find singers like that in TN. Our MDs need to switch on Jaya TV once in a while and watch sapthaswarangaL and other programmes.

[karthik_sa2]

well atleast IR's voice has some character...hariharan and bhava should have been banned from singing in this concert...SPB should have sung more songs

well said

[alwarpet_andavan]

Often while singing he would turn around to signal something to his orchestra and bang! would lose the shruthi... Singing is the easiest part in such programmes. When the musicians rehearse for hrs and deliver it cant the singers do it properly?

True. Idhai perfectionism ednrum sollalaam, aaruvakkalaru endrum sollalaam, and to a certain extent, micro-management endrum sollalaam. Also, in a couple of instances, the singers themselves felt a little bit tied down, IMO. And about the rehearsals, maybe its like the difference between the "nets" and the actual match in the ground

[Ravi_odiyur]

vijayr, you were right in saying "But I find it hard to believe that we cant find singers like that in TN". This is exactly my stand too. We say Sandhana's pronounciation is better, Shreya is improving on the diction... this goes on to show that we are getting convinced with the flawed dictions too. Sadhana and Shreya are great singers no doubt but I can never accept their pronounciation to be anywhere close to perfection. Infact PSusheela, SPB, Chitra, SJ, Sujatha - all have strong native accent while speaking in Tamizh but when singing their diction is so near perfect!

Yes, even I felt singers did not practise as much as the orchestra (why then would Shreya sing as "Thoduthey"). And again, Shreya jumping around and moving back forth seemed very unprofessional.

[Sanjeevi]

And again, Shreya jumping around and moving back forth seemed very unprofessional.

Her behaviour was like a child. (Thoduthey, theduthey and thappa badichuttu thiru thiru nu muzhichathu)