Magnum Opus – Svatantra 2021 Music Festival

The ARTery is dedicating its just inaugurated Svatantra 2021 festival to the late violinist Sangita Kalanidhi Prof. T.N. Krishnan.  Professionally recorded, hour-long concerts by several recognised artistes will be individually released every fortnight for about 15 Sundays, culminating around Krishnan’s first death anniversary in November.

Ramanathan Iyer, the brains behind the series, elucidates. “The theme is Magnum Opus – where the centrepiece of the presentation is a recognised major item within its rubric. Each program will feature one such piece that will be leisurely elaborated – it could be a kriti, a vaRNam, a pallavi. The pieces are painstakingly selected to showcase as much variety as possible covering various bani-s, composers, rAgam-s, types of compositions etc. They will be presented by vocal and instrumental artistes of both genders, representing different styles, with careful attention paid to ensure that not only are the compositions highlighted but the beauty of the instruments as well.”

A version of this article appeared in The Hindu.

Major compositions rendered in detail were mainstays of yesteryear concerts that Ramanathan is trying to revisit. “A different format like this can be explored because the series is funded without any corporate sponsorships and entirely through The ARTery’s other activities,” says Ramanathan. “From 2013-2018, Svatantra was a yearly festival around Independence Day – hence the title. 2019 became a gap year since corporate sponsorship dried up. In January 2020, we did a live festival in Thiruvananthapuram in memory of my father – the first edition without any corporate sponsorships.”

The curtain raiser last Sunday featured the violin recital of Charumathi Raghuraman, one of Krishnan’s prime students. Ramanathan says, “Krishnan mama’s life and music are themselves magnum opuses. A performance by someone he groomed personally, a prominent torchbearer of his style, was the best way to kick-off the series.” Anantha R. Krishnan on the mridangam and G. Chandrasekara Sharma on the ghatam brought in further flavour – Anantha’s first concert as a young boy was with Krishnan and Chandrasekara Sharma has played with the doyen on many occasions too.

Other artistes currently lined up include Palghat Dr. R. Ramprasad, Dr. Jayanthi Kumaresh, Ramakrishnan Murthy, Amritha Murali, Anil Srinivasan and Sangita Kalanidhi Dr. S. Sowmya. Others will be scheduled in due course. The concerts will be available free of charge, but donations are welcomed.

All the programs are recorded at The ARTery’s venue in Royapettah (theartery.in), a heritage home redone specifically to facilitate recordings and live, unplugged performances in the arts. Combining old-world charm with a contemporary feel and good acoustics, it provides a conducive ambience for unfettered artistic creativity.

The programs will be aired on The ARTery’s Facebook page and YouTube channels at 7.30 pm every other Sunday, with the next episode on May 9^th. “The entire series is presented with a focus on content without frills, in the philosophy of TN Krishnan’s music,” concludes Ramanathan.