Chennai Music Season @ the Music Academy – A Snapshot

By Shobha Sekhar

After a hiatus owing to the onslaught of Covid and its aftermath, it was an exciting visit to India during the famed December music season! I had friends and students from Australia, the US and Singapore planning their itinerary in Chennai too!

The online tools listing artists, venues, times and links to buying tickets were a bonus to NRI music enthusiasts - for attending live concerts and planning the logistics of sabha hopping and snacking.

Apart from choosing artists, the buzz was alive for finding the venues with the best menus– and the vote was for Arusuvai at Parthasarathy Swami Sabha. @ Rs 550 for lunch on a gold-plated thali with 25 different curries, kozhambus and sweets, unlimited! One sabha warned, "No parking for canteen-only visitors." Sometimes, the queues were only for the canteens, which had a token system to control the crowd.

Arriving at one of Chennai's old legacy, The Music Academy, my article will focus on the concerts here, more on the evening sessions and a few selected afternoon ones, too. My article delves not only on the music but also on the various socio-cultural environs. The administration and operational aspects, acoustics, fashion, food, the behaviour of artists and audiences, cleanliness, and so on.

# Stage decor- Some concerts had the vocalist and violinist sit centre stage and percussionists on either side. I did find the vocalist had to practically strain his neck and look sideways to sync with the violinist. Was it a change needed only to prove the point that violinists were treated on par? If so, why are percussionists pushed to the corner?-- one can argue. A change only for change is not practically conducive.

#Fashionistas- Kancheepuram sarees with flashing jaris were ousted for women in the audience and on the stage. The norm seems to be for more sober attire, and yes, I saw no diamond jewellery! Exception - some main stage performers. While women did not flaunt any hairdos, some men did! -such as flowing, long, permed hair and kudumis/small ponytails.

# Audience participation and Behaviour - Minimal exodus during tani by percussionists during the day concerts. The 6.45 pm concerts felt the brunt of exits between 8 pm and 9 pm. Never mind what the artists were performing!

At the Music Academy, there was an announcement for members in the audience not to advise regarding the volume of the acoustics or otherwise. I must admit the quality of sound at Music Academy is quite the best but since there is no 'sound check' it had to be adjusted during the concert.

I discerned decent audience numbers for the afternoon non-ticketed concerts.  In the evening ticketed concerts, the numbers varied– depending on the popularity of the performers. Does the audience only endorse younger artists – not the stalwarts? What can experienced musicians do to inject freshness?

Given the high quality of music proffered by almost every featured vocalist/ instrumentalist, could the organisations do more to attract more enthusiasts? Though the overall statistics in numbers may have increased, can sabhas innovate, market, and strategise to increase participation?

The Concerts

A 'WOW' concert that stood out in the afternoon series was Ramana Balachandran on the veena. When I visited a music retail store to purchase veenas for my students in Melbourne, the salesperson mentioned that the veena sales in India had plummeted because very few students learn to play the instrument;  perhaps they are more prevalent in 'foreign' countries, he mused.

Ramana has prodigal skills. He exhibits a good balance of melodic and rhythmic mastery. Attached to his strings is a spiritual awakening. He sings the lyrics intermittently, which makes it more enjoyable. 

Ranjani and Gayatri captivated the audience in the seniors segment with their well-executed concert. A packed hall with bated breath! Their ragam-tanam-pallavi are anticipated for freshness and graha bhedam expertise. Nalinakanti raga sounded beautiful – every crevice, nook, and corner came alive! Ragam-tanam-pallavi in Nalinakanti was presented in Trimukha tala ( thattu beats are in tisram and the rest in chatusram). Gayatri's sruti bhedham with four ragas, presented in quick succession, alternating between the tricky note placements, was flawless. The last two concluding items - abhang and a sloka were short due to time constraints.

A chaste and aesthetically presented concert by Sumithra Vasudev. Her renditions oozed with classicism, true to her guru R. Vedavalli's bani. Rakhi ragas Saveri ( Daridapule), the rare raga Mahuri ( Mamava Raghuvira by Muthuswami Dikshitar) and a simple ragan-tanam-pallavi in Kambhoji were presented on a well-curated canvas.

Pantula Rama included some interesting and rare items. A pada varnam in  Kharaharapriya told the classical Ramayana story lucidly. Tyagaraja's Raminchuva Revarura in the rare Suposini raga, a brilliant raga essayed in Bilahari with fast-paced kalpana swaras. A refreshing ragam-tanam-pallavi in Shanmukhapriya beginning with a sloka by Kalidasa. The sloka and structure with a permutation SRGMPDN and ragas strung together with special emphasis on jeeva swaras.

Vignesh Ishwar impressed with a tempering of speed that reflected sowkyam rasa in almost all aspects of his singing–raga alapana, kriti rendering, niraval or swaram. Kritis in Ahiri (Mayamma) Mukhari (Ksheenamai) were sung evocatively but a couple of fast-paced or durita kala kritis could have been intermittently and judiciously sung to enhance the beauty of the vishrantha mood!

Sriranjani Santhanagopalan's highlight - Reetigaula alapana with impeccable phrasings and Mayura Shikhi  ragam-tanam-pallavi in Khamas. The talam is in the shape of the crest of a Peacock– ( 72 Aksharas)

Thakathakita Thakadhimi 

Thaka Thakita Thakadhimi Tham

Thakathakita Thakadhimi

Thakita Thaka tham.

Praveen Sparsh on the mridangam and Alathur Rajaganesh on the khanjira executed the Mayura Shikhi. She enthralled the audience with a beautiful voice and siksha from her father and guru Neyveli Santhanagopalan.

Amritha Murali, along with her guru R.K. Shriramkumar on the violin, B Sivaraman on the mridangam and H. Prasanna on the ghatam had an impressive start. Nannubrova in Lalitha with lower octave forays, Madhureshwari in Yaman, Koluvai in Todi, and especially ragam-tanam-pallavi in Kannada, Gaula and Kannada Gaula were well rendered. Todi Alapana brimmed with majestic phrases. Amritha's voice was a bit strained that day, but she carried on creatively and impressively, a trait that almost all vocalists need to deal with!

Malladi Brothers have always been consistent with their presentations that abound in sukham, sowkyam and perfect lyrical excellence.  The team, with Nishanth Chandran on the violin, Trichy Sankaran on the mridangam and Suresh Vaidyanathan on ghatam provided an all-pervading atma trupthi and fullness. Vidwan Trichy Sankaran has an additional feather to his cap, teaching at Universities in Canada and maintaining his strong links back home. His tani with Suresh was a treat.

Jayanthi Kumaresh, on the veena has a command that is ravishing. Her family lineage provides her with atyantha gnanam- both melodic and rhythmic. Her D-oriented ragas in her ragam-tanam-pallavi woven together for their appeal –Dwijavanti, Darbar, Darbari and Dharmavathi and tanams in these ragas were magical. 

Jayanthi's exchanges with the percussionists Jayachandra Rao and Trichy Krishnaswamy during swara kuraippus were enjoyable. I have heard her jugalbandi with Zakir Hussain on the table - a truly magical experience!  Would the Academy take on that suggestion? 

K Gayatri's execution of ragam-tanam-pallavis – with complex talams galore does her guru Suguna Purushothaman proud. The ease with which she handles them with flawless execution is indeed remarkable! Her attractive, bejewelled stage presence brims with confidence and ease! 

Meenalochana in Dhanyasi, Amba ninu in Anandabhairavi, Janaki Pathe brought glimpses of my guru  D.K. Jayaraman's style and glistened with bhavam. A special mention of the beautiful exchange between Poongulam Subramaniam on the mridangam and V Sai Subramaniam on morsing needs to be made, especially the high and low octave sounds produced by Sai on morsing were indeed interesting!

Abhishek Raghuram has a sonorous voice, and athyantha gnyanam has a magnetic charm. He brings alive any note, kalpana swaram or raga that he explores. And deep dive, he does with any raga, even a lighter one! His enthusiastic exchanges with his team- violinist L. Ramakrishnan and Patri Satishkumar on mridangam and Suresh Vaidyanathan on ghatam were exciting, especially the young music students who filled the stage. Abhishek has a huge fan following, and it was heartening to notice all the youngsters, even as young as nine and ten years of age, keeping the beat to precision.

Sanjay Subrahmanyan- Sustaining your position at the top is even more challenging than rising to the top!  Sanjay has successfully retained his top-tier position. He delves into rare raga expositions such as Kriti Vanadurge in raga Vanaspati by Harikesanellur Muthiah Bhagavathar and Vachamagachara in raga Kaikavasi, and rakti ragas such as Sahana and ragam-tanam-pallavi in Manirangu. His erudite mix of ghana, rare, popular and rakti ragas and compositions are his forte. He started the concert with a rare Ata tala varnam in Sankarabharanam. Varadarajan on the violin, Neyveli Venkatesh (mridangam) and Bangalore Rajasekar on morsing (who produced well-modulated sounds in different octaves on morsing) simulate a well-rehearsed teamwork and know the pulse of the vocalist.

Sandeep Narayan's concert on 26 December was well-attended. He has a strong stage presence and emulates his guru but adds a fair pinch of his own creativity, too! Neraval at Karanam kettu vadi in Poorvikalyani was elaborately sung, Budhi Radhu in Sankarabharanam had an evocative apalana, and Tani appended by Trivandrum Balaji and S.V. Ramani on ghatam was outstanding. Ragam-tanam-pallavi in Kanada was not his best and was shorter than the usual RTP's. Tillana in raga Dhavati, composed by S Kalyanaraman, provided a robust feast for taste buds.

Sangeetha Upanyasam by Vishakha Hari was a huge draw with a discerning audience. The thematic Nava Vidha Bhakti was brought alive by her lucidity in words, vocalising and interspersed with witty repartees! Smarana Bhakti by Sita, Puja seva by Sabari, Sakhya Bhakti by monkeys and Anjaneya, Vibhishana Seva, Shravanam and Vandanam by Lakshman and Bharatha and culminating with Rama Pattabhishekam, The singing included a ragam-tanam-pallavi too and detailed exploration by HN Bhaskar (violin) followed by a well-crafted tani by Arjun Ganesh (mirdangam) and Sunil Kumar (khanjira).

Reverse migration has made its foray into Classical music. Ananya Ashok from the USA was accompanied on Violin by Sandeep Ramachandran from Singapore. Other contenders are, of course, Sandeep Narayan and Ramakrishnan Murthy. Ananya sings with unfettered abandon and bonded well with her young team members (all of them below the age of 40)

Ramakrishnan Murthy sings with a felicity of style that is composed, measured and delivered with maturity and stylised. His Todi alapana for Koluva was built brick by brick into a lofty structure, and he was aided very ably on the violin by Charumathi Raghuraman. Charumathi is indeed a star and dazzled almost as much as Ramakrishnan on vocals. Ragam-tanam-pallavi in Brinavana Saranga had ragamalika segments that had the violinist choose her own.

Akkarai Subbulakshmi and Swarnalatha's presented a pleasing violin concert on the penultimate day. Subbulakshmi's maturity and virtuosity were evident. The sisters played tanam in ragamalika and ragam-tanam-pallavi in khanda jati Triputa tala, in Vagadheeshwari. They executed the tanams in a hitherto rare technique that was welcome. Earlier raga sketches in Yadukula kambhoji and Ranjani by Swarnalatha and Subbulakshmi, respectively, sculpted the beauty of the raga bhava.

Trichur brothers provided a fitting finale concert at the Music Academy. Niraval at Mathsya Koorma in Subhapantuvarali kriti, Sree Sathyanarayana was delectable. They tried harmony –an advantage for duos -another avenue to explore! They introduced interactive clapping and singing with the audience –  a welcome feature to draw participation and involvement.

On the Sadas evening, Katha Kalakshepam by Dushyanth Sridhar was the icing on the cake. Anahita and Apoorva's vocal singing of Bhavayami Raghuramam and the evocative interpretation of Ramayana –sometimes drawing a parallel with contemporary anecdotes and hilarious digs went well, though the time slot overshot till around 9.45 pm. It's too late for Chennai, but never mind if it is to listen to Dushyanth Sridhar!

The author is a vainika and teaches veena in Melbourne and is also a lecturer at the Australian National University.

I posed this question to a few rasikas attending the concerts. A few suggestions stood out for me.

#        Loyalty program for regular attendees

#        Incentives to young music students to attend concerts by Music Schools and tie-ups with sabhas.

   Technology could be better utilised to reach global audiences—live streaming of concerts- with subscriptions. Local streaming can be excluded for obvious purposes.

#      A pragmatic approach to selling tickets online for concerts where regular members may not attend. Could empty seats be filled by 'late bird' online ticketing strategies aided by AI?

# Riding the complexity wave - The trend was also to present complicated ragam-tanam-pallavis in complex nadai variations, and tala structures. One of the most complex was Amrutha Venkatesh in raga- Ragavardhini and in tala Ragavardhini with angams–plutam, anudhrutam,+guru+dhrutam, and anu dhrutam (total count of 24). She later split this 24 into various tala variations–a herculean feat indeed!

Many teermanams by even seasoned artists were so intricate that they had to be rectified owing to some wrong starts, patterns and pauses.

# The facilities - Clean toilets at sabhas are hard to find—full marks to the Music Academy on this one.

PHOTOS COURTESY: THE MUSIC ACADEMY