#Ilaiyaraaja #SymphonyNo.1 #Valiant
History created by a 82 year old man - with the grand debut of #Valiant #SymphonyNo.1 by our own Panniyapuram Beethoven - Maestro Ilaiyaraaja, the first ever Indian / Asian film composer to perform a full fledged western classical Symphony in London and that too with the Royal Philharmonic orchestra. It is like daring a lion at its own den, announcing the grand arrival and marking his own territory there. Couldn’t have been any more grandeur than this.
Symphony is not new to Raaja. To the world, Valiant may be his first Symphony, but not to his fans. His Symphonic touch, has been part of us for the past four decades. The world just got to witness it with the #Valiant.
Many of the interludes / BGMs composed by him even way back in the 70’s & 80’s had elements of Symphony. That’s why though the Symphony was 45 minutes, the whole concert was for 90 minutes and during the second half of the concert orchestral version of selected songs & background scores were performed.
They say, Symphony is an experience - a structured western classical pattern with each section a poetry of its own and all woven together to form a beautiful story.
Listening to all the music enthusiasts discussing on YT, Twitter or Instagram, about his intricate Compositions, back ground scores and his technical genius, hasn’t he been giving us all the flavours of symphony in bits n pieces through some of his craziest arrangements ? His music just flows through your heart, caresses your spirit & liberates your soul.
Looking back, I was probably 13-14 when my brother introduced me to the 2 musical album cassette released by Ilaiyaraaja at that time (late 1980) - “How to Name it” & “Nothing but wind” - which in itself a mini symphony of its own kind. Probably an Indianised version.
I was too young to appreciate the musical nuances, but I vividly remember that I was immediately drawn to those beautiful notes. Back then, we often used to listen to the two albums on our tape recorder.
Till date, I absolutely have no knowledge about music, but sounds - especially the strings & piano always resonated with me a lot.
Till my early teens, all that I knew about music was Ilaiyaraaja, MSV, some Bollywood, and a bit of Boney M & MJ. That’s it.
But, that changed completely around 1989-90, after my eldest uncle moved in as our neighbour from Hyderabad, post his retirement. Thanks to his treasure trove of music collections and to him, for playing those every day & night. Suddenly, I was exposed to a variety of music - be it Hindustani Gazhals / old Bollywood classics / Indian Pop / Pakistani music / Bhajans. Until then I had never even heard of a Runa Laila or Pankaj Udhas or Usha Uthup or Ghulam Ali or Mehdi Hasan or Hariprasad Chaurasia or Gurdas Mann.
If my mornings began with some devotional songs & artis, the late evenings were filled with beautiful ghazals & hindustani classical music mellifluously resonating from my uncle’s drawing room. Come to think of it, I do feel, I have taken on some of my uncle’s genes. He too, like me, loved to live life large.
It was also around this same time, another young couple moved in nearby, who widened my interest by introducing me to some of the greatest English pop songs & music bands. This went on to grow with the advent of satellite channels - the MTVs, Channel [V]s & Star Worlds.
Later in life, after a long lull, around 2006-07 when Ilaiyaraaja started doing live concerts after many years, my husband & I, being the ardent Raaja fans that we were, never missed an opportunity to attend his Chennai concerts. It was during these concerts Raaja spoke about the counter-points, what a symphony was, how he composed Idhayam Pogudhe inspired by Schubert’s unfinished Symphony, the bits n pieces he used in the movies from his two albums, how a background score, as a catalyst, completely changed the mood setting of a scene, etc etc and & demonstrated all these live on stage.
These overwhelming exposures and the couple of fiction novels that I read, paved the way & kindled a very basic interest to explore on Internet to atleast try n listen to some of the western classical pieces by the famous composers - Chopin / Tchaikovsky / Rachmaninov / Mozart / Bach / Beethoven / Wagner every now and then. Whenever I had my blues and dark moments, my iPad & these extraordinary compositions became my sanctuary.
Now, seeing the posts & videos shared by those who watched the Symphony live, and the announcement that the Symphony is scheduled to be held in 13 countries in the coming months, heart yearns for a chance/opportunity to watch it live. What a memorable and life time experience would that be ? A girl can dream, ain’t it? And Paulo Coelho said “Believe in your dreams and the universe will conspire to help you achieve it”. 🥰😍❤️
