Ananya Ashok’s approach to music is gentle and sincere. This amply reflected in her raga essays, rendition of kritis and swara sequences. She is blessed with a voice that traverses across the octaves with ease and she could make better use of it.
Ananya’s detailed Kharaharapriya and Tyagaraja’s ‘Chakkani raja’ with a fairly elaborate niraval and swaras on ‘Kantiki sundara’ fit the bill as the main piece of the concert. Her swaraprasthara centred on dhaivatam was just adequate without any overkill. But wonder why Ananya left the line ‘sandula duranela o manasa’ during the delivery of sangatis?
Ananya brought out the essence of the ragas in her alapanas — first Sunadavinodini and later, Kharaharapriya — but for a few repetitive motifs. In Mysore Vasudevachar’s ‘Devathi deva’ in Sunadavinodini, she appended the kriti with a modest string of swaras.
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‘Vanajaksha’, the beautiful Ritigowla Ata tala varnam was the opening piece and the others that followed were ‘Smarane sukhamu’ in Janaranjani by Tyagaraja, ‘Kadaikkan vaithennai’ in Begada by Ramaswami Sivan, ‘Ramachandram bhavayami’ in Vasantha by Muthuswami Dikhshitar and ‘Venkatachala nilyam’ in Sindhubhairavi by Purandaradasar. Why a half-hearted attempt to add swarakalpana in Vasantha that ended abruptly?
Sruti Sarathy on the violin played with maturity. Her responses in the niraval at ‘Kantiki sundara’ is worth mentioning. Her swara segments also demonstrated interesting combinations. Sai Giridhar on the mridangam was equally competent and enhanced the appeal of the concert.