KARACHI, Aug 10: Three Chicago-based instrumentalists played with remarkable elan some of the finest compositions of western classical music at a recital organized by The Citizens Foundation at the auditorium of Alliance Francaise on Monday evening.

The performers prefaced the recital with a sinfonia concertante composed by Austrian musician Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart when he was barely 20. Karen Grilk Noorani played the violin, William Kronenberg the viola and Gloria Febro Grilk the piano. The audience thoroughly enjoyed the tuneful conversation that the violin and viola seemed to have with each other.

The second piece was one of the famous Hungarian Dances composed by German musician Johannes Brahms between 1868 and 1880. This again involved a pleasing tete-a-tete between the viola and piano. The performers concluded the first session with Mozart's sinfonia concertante.

The second session featured compositions by German musician Max Bruch and an intermezzo from one-act opera Cavalleria Rusticana (Rustic Chivalry) by Italian composer Pietro Mascagni.

The performers also played Carmen, a four- act opera which French composer Georges Bizet completed just before his death of heart disease in 1875. But the most foot-tapping composition was Song for my father by Horace Silver which was described as a thrilling specimen of Afro-Cuban music.

Shedding light on the philanthropic activities of The Citizens Foundation in the education sector, chairman Ehsan Saleem said that the non-profit organization had established its first school in 1996. He said that as of April 2004 the TCF was running 194 schools. Daniyal Noorani, TCF president in the United States, introduced the performers.