KARACHI: It won’t be an exaggeration to say that the Gharana Series Finale at The Second Floor was simply magical. Two maestros got together on a balmy evening on Sunday with a performance that completely floored the audience.

Playing a tabla, Ustad Khurshid Hussain, who has performed with one of the greatest musicians of Pakistan, kept the younger members of the audience enlivened with his witty remarks and notes of wisdom.

Calling the next set of rendition ‘bundish’, Ustad Hussain went on to play the tabla in a beautiful manner, adding in the end, “I try to play. I try to get it right.”

Hailing from a family of musicians, Ustad Hussain, worked at the Radio Pakistan for a long time. In between various compositions he kept telling the audience how he learned to play a particular sound and how difficult it got for him at times.

“Bohot bardasht ka kaam hai yeh. Bohot kuch bhool kar issay yaad rakhna parta hai,” he remarked with a smile. (It needs a lot of patience. One has to forgo a lot of things to keep focus on remembering this art).

The younger members of the audience were silently listening to Ustad Hussain’s renditions. At one point, he appreciated the patience with which they were listening to him, saying “not to mention classical music, not many people (can) listen to a tabla being played for so long these days.”

From soothing to intense, the music kept the audience entranced, with another maestro quietly adding soul to Ustad Hussain’s compositions.

Sitting right beside Ustad Hussain was Sajid Hussain. Belonging to the Senia Gharana, he started playing sitar at the age of 16 in a family said to be connected with the Tansen Gharana. Having played for radio, television and music festivals, Sajid Hussain, is one of the few sitar players in the country who wants to pass on his skills to his children.

Both musicians played solos and eventually, a jugalbandi, which made the audience leave every thought and worry behind and engross themselves in what can only be defined as pure magic.—Saher Baloch