The present should go on: Sanjay Subrahmanyan’s on notice in digital avatar

I’m an unabashed admirer of Sanjay Subrahmanyan’s music, probably the most clear and sincere inventive expressions I’ve ever heard in my life. He has been singing for almost 4 many years and has scores of avid followers, however I acquired to learn about him solely within the early 2000s, and actual nose to nose, solely within the early 2010s.
However, because of the timelessness of the digital world and shared recollections, I might considerably retrace a minimum of the periphery of his musical journey to grasp the up to date him in perspective and the complexly detailed inventive tapestry that defines his music. As a latecomer to his world of artwork, I acquired fortunate as a result of what I started watching reside was a musician who was at his peak as a robust compact of musical knowledge and virtuosity acquired over many a few years.
For the identical cause, like scores of others, I too journey on his reside performances. They are distinctive spectacles the place he shares fairly part of his life-force with you. On stage, he’s selfless, emotionally bare, uninhibited, and each boisterous and tranquil. Every time you watch him, you see a novel curation of the components that he performed during the last 40 years and one thing new too. I name his reside live shows the IMAX of classical music. With Neyveli Venkatesh (mridangam) and S. Varadarajan (violin), on his flanks, they’re gipping, big-sized blockbusters. And no two live shows are related. Like a whole lot of others, I’ve levitated with them, danced with them, cried with them, prayed with them and laughed with them. He has been my most watched musician and I used to be planning to amp up the variety of reside live shows that I might attend in a 12 months when Covid stopped all the things.
The final Sanjay live performance I watched reside was on the Fine Arts Society in Kochi in March 2020, following the Margazhi live shows in Chennai in November-January 2019 and the Kuthiramalika live performance in Thiruvananthapuram in January 2020. After the Kochi live performance, I used to be planning to attend his much-awaited live performance on the Kapaleeshwarar Temple in Chennai in April-May, and later the live shows at Karamana, Madurai, Coimbatore and Bangalore, that he hasn’t missed for years, earlier than returning to the Chennai season. In between, his loyal abroad audiences have been to get their common fill, to not point out performances at many different locations throughout India as effectively.
But none of those occurred and it’s been nearly two years since he carried out in entrance of an viewers. With the specter of a 3rd wave of the pandemic looming giant, no person is aware of when reside live shows will return for good.
But can Sanjay avoid performing and connecting along with his loyal audiences this lengthy? Can the latter reside with out his live shows? How lengthy can he and them look forward to the uncertainty to blow over?
The reply is “Sanjay Sabha”, a subscription-based digital live performance corridor that he launched on his Youtube Channel six months in the past. Like the digital Berlin Philharmonic and LA Phil, Sanjay Sabha is an instance of how classical music can stay alive even throughout horrible adversities.
Sanjay Sabha is a subscription-based digital live performance corridor that Sanjay Subrahmanyan launched on his Youtube Channel six months in the past.
“I used to be getting annoyed sitting at residence and never singing live shows. There was all the time optimism within the air final 12 months. So, we thought issues might open up any time. By September/October I realised that this was not going to go away so simply. That is once I thought up this concept. Initially it was only one live performance and some further songs each month. It was Bhargavi Mani of
Edge Design House who satisfied me to broaden my digital presence,” says Sanjay in regards to the genesis of Sanjay Sabha.
Sanjay Sabha is what a typical Sanjay fan or a classical music lover will need to have been on the lookout for. Twelve live shows in a 12 months – one live performance each month – is greater than what one might attend in actual life (apart from the Margazhi live shows). One doesn’t have to jostle for these hard-to-get entrance row seats as a result of each seat is on the entrance row, and the multi-camera, high-quality manufacturing values make sure that you miss nothing. Premium content material within the consolation of 1’s residence. That’s an amazing deal.
I cherished Sanjay Sabha proper from the primary episode. Each live performance is rigorously curated and in addition presents one with a chance to expertise his renditions of ragas and compositions that one won’t have heard reside and even as a recording, along with the common gems of Carnatic music which have a Sanjay contact. For occasion, I haven’t heard his Vachaspathi reside, that too a Swathi Thirunal Kriti. I haven’t heard his Navarasa Kanada both. Similarly, I’ve heard solely a track in Chandrakauns, however by no means an Ragam Thanam Pallavi (RTP), that too a Tamil Pallavi. I additionally haven’t heard his RTPs in Kalavati, Revati and Dhanyasi. In truth, there are various extra. Besides the brand new and uncommon ones, there are his common masterly renditions of Begada, Kalyani, Natabhairavi, Mararanjani, Keeravani, Jyothiswarupini, Madhyamavathi and so forth.
Sanjay Sabha gives two varieties of memberships – Patrons and Supporters. Patrons get to view a 90+ minute live performance each month, some unique movies created for them, and in addition early entry to the free movies that Sanjay often releases on his Youtube Channel.
Every live performance by Sanjay is famous for an intrinsic, but discernible intelligence and experiential variety. He doesn’t repeat and he ensures that there’s selection by way of ragas and their moods, languages, composers and in addition types of rendition. These inalienable parts of Sanjay live shows discover their reflection in Sanjay Sabha too. And the top quality digital format ensures that it’s fairly intimate.
Sanjay Sabha gives two varieties of memberships – Patrons and Supporters. Patrons get to view a 90+ minute live performance each month, some unique movies created for them, and in addition early entry to the free movies that Sanjay often releases on his Youtube Channel. Supporters get early entry to the free movies. In addition, there are two distinctive productions referred to as “On that Note” and “Short Notes’ that every one get to look at.
A common component that makes classical music particular, whatever the kind and style, is the depth of experiences that an artiste goes by means of over a number of years, each as a pupil and performer. That in reality makes anecdotes and biographies of classical musicians extraordinarily transferring. Their lives are inseparable from their artwork and are replete with private tales of compositions, scales, performances, locations, folks and their very own inventive journeys. I bear in mind studying Zubin Mehta’s arresting description of how, as a younger man, he acquired his first ever awe-inspiring glimpse of Herbert Von Karajan by means of a half-opened class-room door in Vienna; and Anne Sophie Mutter recounting situations of Karajan pushing her to the “edge of what you could comprehend at that very moment” from the age of 13.
In his charming model, Sanjay generously recounts many such superb private tales in On that Note that make plenty of sense in appreciating his music – from his rising up years until now: about ragas, compositions, languages, folks, gurus, masters of music, events and so on. They are usually not simply tales, however a magical deep dive into his fascinating world of Carnatic music in about two minutes or so at a time. Although all of the episodes thus far have been engrossing, the story a few Nadaswaram participant revealing to him methods to sing a raga utilizing the Sa-Pa-Sa framework when he was younger is solely gorgeous.
Sanjay Sabha additionally has two distinctive productions referred to as “On that Note” and “Short Notes.”
Sanjay is phenomenal in improvising with Swaras. In Short Notes, one will get to expertise that Sanjaysque swara-summary of a raga in a sexy and snappy method. It’s dramatic: the accent on sure notes, the modulation, the dynamics, the suspense and so forth – all beneath 30 seconds. What makes them particular is the tantalising hook that he leaves you with. There might be an Ilayaraja hidden in it or a previous grasp. Or a touch at an iconic composition or a particular phrase. Going by the roaring response in social media, Short Notes is clearly a crossover hit.
Although it’s the need of Covid that made Sanjay go significantly digital, he appears fairly blissful about its influence. “The response has been terrific and we are excited to continue with this. We are confident that this will continue month on month even when things open up.” He provides: “The credit for this goes to Bhargavi Mani and her team and MT Aditya Srinivasan (audio and sound).”
Will he additionally add previous live performance movies or audios to Sanjay Sabha? “Yes that is also a possibility, but nothing concrete at the moment.” What about strengthening the presence on platforms reminiscent of Spotify? “Yes audio platforms do offer better traffic especially since the older concerts were never video recorded with a digital audience in mind. They were mostly for archival purposes.”

That he would proceed Sanjay Sabha even after normality returns may be very promising. By then, hopefully he would be capable of periodically embrace the recordings of a few of his reside live shows too. Way again within the 2000s, Sanjay was one of many early pioneers of digital and therefore it’s not shocking that his new digital Avatar is that of an explorer of newer concepts and new potentialities.