CHENNAI: Over the years, the December season has become the ground for showing, new and experimental work, which promises a trajectory that is exciting. The music season in Chennai will be abuzz with activity this year, both on the listeners as well as performers front.
Today, audiences are larger, keener, more enthusiastic and appreciative. The number of impresarios and concert organisers too are on the rise. Often, they come out with innovative ideas in programme planning and presentation to attract more listeners. Large commercial and business houses and even some newspapers and networks have joined the fray. Of course, they have come to regard music as a means of business proposition.
The pursuit of music and dance is now considered a sign of culture and personal adornment. The number of young artistes, participating have been on the rise in the recent years, bringing out a wealth of aspiring talent to public view (like SR Veeraraghavan, senior disciple of Balamuralikrishna, Mambalam Sisters, Nisha Rajagopal, Sriram Gangadharan to mention a few).
Harikatha too is being encouraged, for preserving and promoting the arts, in their pristine purity, cultivating among the public, a deep appreciation of the unique heritage of ours. While the quality of the performances are on the increase, it is becoming an increasingly tough task, to select the toppers from among the short listed.
Some of the finest specimen of gushing, over brimming musicality are to be seen, some of them being encouraged rightly by Sri Ramjee of Isai Mazhalai group. Bharath Sundar, Vidya Kalyanaraman (vocal), Parur Ananthakrishnan, KP Nandini (violin), NC Bharadwaj and Harish Kumar (Mridangam) are among those artistes who need to be watched.
One cannot help mentioning premier institutions like Sonal Mansingh’s Centre for Indian Classical Dances, Kalakshetra, Saila-Sudha (the academy of Excellence in Kuchipudi and Bharathanatyam), Kala Priyadharshini (Parvathi Ravi Ghantasala) creating remarkable platforms, to showcase the holistic nature of the art, indicating the signs of the time.
The top musicians, of course, are no longer the proverbial ‘penniless wretches’. The avenues of their earning have multiplied. The fees of musicians, in good demand, have sky rocketed. Let the top musicians, realise that love of the ‘pelf and profit’ should not relegate, all finer considerations of ‘art for art sake’ by increasing the number of concerts during the season, even when ‘vocal chords’ do not co-operate.
The advent of sponsorship as a phenomenon is a good sign, but the companies must be careful about whom they fund, particularly when this funding goes to ‘fly by night’ operators, during the music season. Music buffs like Mrs YG Parthasarathy and Sri A Natarajan (former Director/Doordarshan) opine, that though proliferation of number of programmes do help the artistes, but yet the remuneration to the artiste should not become a pittance, when compared to the generous inflow of funds from the sponsors, taking advantage of the plight of the upcoming artiste.
Let a thousand voices echo across the city, let a thousand ankles chime and let us say with a nod ‘let happiness and pain become a music in their string, fill the mouths of heaven, with their tongue’.Contradictory view points have been expressed regarding proliferation of programmes, but let not the condition be that there is apoplexy at the extremities (too many concerts) while there is sheer anaemic at the centre (no audience).
About the critic: Music columnist Narayana Vishwanath, who has won numerous awards both in India and abroad for propagation of classical arts, will be doing the rounds in the city during the Marghazhi festival this year, covering the entire gamut of cultural activities, contributing reviews, articles and interviews.
In appreciation of his sincere contribution to various forms, the Tamil Nadu Government had earlier recommended his name for inclusion in the Cultural Committee of Indian Council for Cultural Relatives (ICCR), New Delhi.Narayana Vishwanath, who himself is a musician, had been functioning as Member (Programme) of South Zone Cultural Centre (Ministry of Culture), Government of India. He is a Member (Lok Adalat) in Tamil Nadu Legal Services Authority and currently Advisor – (Airport), Chennai Metro Rail Projects – (a joint venture of Central and State Government).
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