Hindustani music festivals running over two or more days have always featured many sets of performers. But conventionally, a standalone con...
Hindustani music festivals running over two or more days have always featured many sets of performers. But conventionally, a standalone concert would present only one set. The concert would go on for three hours or even more depending on the calibre of the performer and the response from the audience.
However, over the past two decades or so, concert organisers have been trying to feature many performers in a single session. They have probably been driven to doing this in order to reach out to diverse audiences with varied tastes. As a result, musicians are forced to squeeze content within 60 to 90 minutes and the conscientious among them are even worried that encores may spill over into the time allotted to succeeding performers.
As a consequence, concerts sometimes turn into neatly packaged capsules that do not allow musicians the liberty to dwell over musical ideas – even if they are enticing.
Notwithstanding the artistic compromises that performers may be forced into in these stifling circumstances, one may feel that the very physical presence of so many of them in single concert would add an important component to the audience. In other words, each set of musicians could be a part of the audience...
