Akshay Padmanabhan’s strengths are his strong voice and clear diction. He established a rapport right from the start. In the main raga Kiravani, his creative instincts came to the fore during the alapana. In the kriti ‘Kaligiyunte gadaa’ of Tyagaraja, Akshay traversed through the octaves effortlessly with imaginative niraval at ‘Bhaguga Sri Raghuramuni’ and his playing around the notes ‘da, pa, ma and pa, ma,’ in the kalpanaswara was delightful.
While Kiravani was impressive, so was his sketch of Kannada. Muthuswamy Dikshitar’s ‘Sri Mathrubhutam’ was a smooth rendition. The choice of singing kalpanaswarams at ‘Sadasivam Paramasivam’, intelligently placing swaraksharam phrases was apt for the madhyamakala rendering in the lively gait of misra chapu.
Violinist V. Sanjeev presented a brilliant Kiravani as well. He exhibited his fine skills in the kalpanaswaras in Kannada.
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Beginning with a varnam ‘Vanajaksha’ in soothing Behag raga composed by Prof. T.R. Subramaniam, he moved on to present a zesty ‘Bhuvini dasudane’ in Sriranjani. The niraval at ‘Palamunchina neetamunchina’ was also set in a fast pace. Koteeswara Iyer’s ‘Edayya gati’ in Chalanata created a tranquil ambience. He did justice to the emotive feel of the vivadi swaras.
Shertalai Ananthakrishnan on the mridangam with his powerful strokes strengthened the presentation during the Sriranjani and Kannada raga kritis. H. Prasanna on the ghatam paired with him to present a riveting thani.
Akshay can blossom into a fine musician if he pays more attention to the speedier glides with swift brigas across the scales that occasionally skid over a few swarasthanas. He did display his creativity and aesthetic sense in the kalpanaswara sections.
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He concluded with the time-honoured ‘Brovavamma’ of Syama Sastri in Nilambari.