Gopalkrishna Gandhi says demand made on artists is becoming
burdensome  While it is “a matter of pride and gladness” that
Chennai broke all records in terms of the number of concerts and
attendance this year during the music season, the “demand made
on artists by the sheer pressure of musical thirst is becoming
burdensome”, said former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna
Gandhi on Saturday.  “Now artists are expected to give a concert
a week, almost, and throughout the year and travel all over the
world. This is hard on them, hard on their skill, hardest on the
tone and tenor of their music,” he said while participating in
the centenary celebrations of mridangam vidwan Palghat T.S. Mani
Iyer.  Although today's mridangam players had a longer concert
list than Palghat Mani Iyer ever did, this was “not necessarily
an achievement.”  “There is such a thing as concert fatigue.
There is such a thing as excess, the opposite of kachchitam,” he
said, pointing out that in between concerts and travel,
musicians of the gene