Date: 13th Dec 2019 / 10:00 Hrs
Venue: Vani Mahal, T. Nagar
Team: Akshay Padmanabhan, V.V.Ravi (Violin), Ramesh
(Mridangam), Prasanna (Ghatam)
Finally, a change of venue for me. I decided to start my tryst with the
youngsters. It was Akshay Padmanabhan’s concert at Vani Mahal. It was the mini
hall upstairs. It was, as usual, sparsely populated with what I suppose the
near and dear ones at the front seat. A few rasikas were scattered across the
other seats. Before I start any review, I must say this. It takes enormous guts
to sing to a near-empty hall even if one can console saying all famous artists
too went through the same! Credit to all such artists indeed.
Akshay is a student of P.S.Narayanaswamy
and is still practising regularly. After an initial varnam, he took up Reetigowlai and did a
fabulous job. The chosen Kriti was “Dwaitamu sukhama” of Thyagaraja. Should he devote
one hour for this? Given the short window, I would have loved to see him sing
more kritis to show his breadth.
I must also say the acoustics was very good. No tampering or tweaking
during the stages. Overall ambience was pretty good thanks to the organizers. Dikshitar’s Lalita
Kriti “Hiranmayim Lakshmim sada Bhajami” was next. I couldn’t
help feeling that Akshay was a little intimidated by Ravi on the violin. Ramesh
and Prasad gave a wonderful support in Mridangam and Ghatam.
What followed was another elaborate RTP in Harikambhoji with the Pallavi
lines “Subrahmanya Bharathiyin kavi pamaalaikku eedu undo.” A
great job indeed. Akshay is a rising star. He should pay attention to the
choice of ragas, number of kritis and their order in the concert. He should
also begin to share a rapport with the accompanists if he were to make it big.
Ambience: ***
Vocalist: *
Accompanying artists: *
Raga of the Concert: Lalitha
Overall: *
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