December Music Season....MARGAZHI: MONTH OF MUSIC

Picture: Padmasri Smt. Sudha Ragunathan accompanied by P.Satish Kumar on the Mridangam, B.Raghavendra Roa on the violin, R.Raman on the morsing and Narayanan on the Tambura. Venue: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Date: 7th December 2006.

It is too late to talk about December season. One of the most awaited musical extravaganza in Chennai. I intended to publish this immediately after the season, but few things kept me preoccupied. Better late than never, i thought it should be here before December 2007 :)

Recently few days back I read a report in a leading newspaper that the Government along with the tourism department is planning to be an active partner. This is definitely a good sign for all the rasikas and the season would hopefully be more organised.Come December and the city gears itself for more than thousand concerts. This year was no different with just few more sabhas organising their festivals. But with so many to choose does the listener get to listen to some quality music. There were some really good performances by leading artists. However at the end of the day it’s the number that matters the most. It’s more rewarding to say that one has given 20 concerts rather six or seven quality concerts. That doesn’t take away the credit from the artist who in spite of their frantic schedule tried to give their best shot, but physically it is a daunting task to give 20 concerts in a month.

It was a learning experience for me as a student of music. The Academy sessions in the morning were worth attending. If afternoon slots attract elderly audience, lec-dems in most of the sabhas has poor attendance. Season to me has always been listening to new artists and the veterans. Simple reason it’s a combination that might offer variety. Stalwarts like Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, R.K.Srikantan gave fabulous performances. Srikantan’s concert at the Music Academy is still afresh in my mind. Upcoming artist like Prasanna Venkatraman, Bhavadharini, and K.Gayatri did put up a good show.Most of the evening concerts attracted good crowds and Aruna Sairam, Sudha Ragunathan, T.M.Krishna were the crowd pullers. To my surprise Aruna Sairam’s concert tickets were sold out a day before the concert. At Mylapore Fine Arts, there were listeners who were standing on the road to listen to her concerts. If they were the crowd pullers then few concerts allowed space for kids to play, as the auditorium was almost empty. Probably a few known friends of the musicians attended that concert.

The next set of performers who inspired me included O.S.Thigarajan, T.V.Sankaranarayan, and T.N.Seshagopalan. Their performances had the right balance of ragas and krithis in their concert. The trend is really bad as far as instrument is concerned. The number of rasikas attending it is just dwindling. Though we had Lalgudi duo, E.Gayatri, N.Ramani (whose concert of the academy would be my best pick) attract some sizable number of music lovers. The organisers couldn’t explain the reasons for the same.Though the city boasts itself for organising one of the unique festivals, it lacks the infrastructure. Most of the sabhas have bad acoustics. One found artist continuously signalling for feedback. But that doesn’t make big difference. It was too jarring and the aesthetics of music was lost. When corporate sponsorships are coming in, the authorities could probably deal with this problem. It would be a blessing for both musicians and rasikas.

Season is not just about concerts, its also about interesting cuisines. Canteens came up with new interesting recipes. Pattum and suvaiyum is the hallmark of Chennai Music Festival. Though one can go talk endlessly about Season, one has to accept that it is a musical feast to rasikas. Coming back to where I began, season 2006 had some fascinating performances and hope next year the organisers conduct it on a much larger scale with the government. It would definitely give a boost to Carnatic Music and December festival could be on par with global festival conducted in Edinburgh.