How to Name it Concert

The How to Name it Concert. I am slightly disappointed. I felt there were many deviations from the original in Ambi Subramaniam’s performance. Pieces with many layers of melodies (Counterpoint and Trio) sounded messy. In some parts, Ambi was brilliant, especially in the sections where he has to play brisk. Tempo was a problem throughout. The Orchestra conductor Prabhakar kept insisting Ambi and the other violinist Aditya Ganesh to maintain the tempo and play with more power. Volume of the lead Violin was either too low or too high. String section volume was also inconsistent throughout the concert. Performance Ilaiyaraaja’s orchestra was astounding as always. The performances of the pieces that have no solo Violin in the lead were transcendental. But, even here, the audience spoiled the experience for me. Already the sound was off the balance, and on top of it, audience cheered in every key moment of the piece during the performance and degraded the experience further.

I have never heard Bhavatharini sing in pitch in a live concert, and it wasn’t different in How to Name it Concert either. Sriram Parthasathy’s thunderous rendition of “Om Shivo hum” and that gem “Agandhayil Aaduvadhaa” from Uliyin Osai shook the auditorium. Anil Srinivasan as the host made the show livelier and he enlightened the audience with the musical concepts behind each and every piece. I enjoyed the non-musical sections of the concert - especially Ilaiyaraaja's speech. He. Spoke. A. Lot. That itself was worth the price of the ticket. I heard that the concert will soon happen in other major Cities in India. I will attend the concert again, if and when it happens in Bangalore, but Bhavatharini, please to correct the aforementioned errors if they make sense.