Many amongst the audience in a Carnatic concert are downright bad. People who come to listen to the main artiste, get up and exit in the middle of the main piece after the main artiste hands over the stage to accompanists for the Thani Avarthanam. This sudden sporadic getting-up-and-exitting in an auditorium filled with music patrons causes a lot of hustle and bustle and not only does it disturb the setting of a performance but also demotivates the accompanists from even starting off. It is a shameful and cheap thing to do on the part of audience and a direct insult to the accompanists and to their years of dedication and effort put in for performing at such class and with such maestros.
Doubtless, the best person to drive some sense to people at such a juncture is the main artiste himself. To insult back at the insultors in front of other music patrons. Malladi brothers is the only main artistes whom I have seen who have stood up for the accompanists. In one of the concerts in NMKRV in Feb 2007, when Thani Avarthanam started and people started getting up, one of the brothers, spoke in to the phone rasply, words cutting like a knife through the auditorium, and the decibel raising with every word: "Is it fair?"
The true music patrons applauded for those 3 words. The accompanists's gratefulness showed on their faces.
In another Malladi brothers concert in BTM that was held recently, he sent out a message even before he started off with the main piece: "There is no interval in this main piece. I request the audience to sit through till the Thani Avarthanam is completed."
Hats off to Malladi Brothers! Being in the lineage of disciples of Saint Thyagaraja, nothing less was expected of them!
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I agree it is such a disgrace to the percussion artistes and audiences dont care as to what it means to the artiste. But I would not solely blame them either. For in India, music believe it or not is commoditized, carnatic musicians play in marriage halls where people dont really care for their music and are more bothers about silk sarees and jewellery. So, although euphemistic talk about CM often calls it divine, in reality it is a commodity that is abundantly available to its consumers. So, a little disdain is understandable.
Havind said that, most people cannot understand what the tani is about. Nor have any attempts been made to familiarize audiences to a very dense part of the Carnatic concert.
I believe that audiences will stay if they feel involved and understand on-stage stuff. Same theory goes with why Carnatic music is not so cool with youngsters.
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