KARACHI: The phrase ‘music has no boundaries’ may sound like an overused cliché but it is one of those rare hackneyed statements that will never lose its meaningfulness. The seven notes that musicians employ to exhibit their art and to woo music lovers fundamentally remain the same no matter which part of the world they’re played in. What Italian classical pianist Marco Giliberti and tenor Mariano Sanfilippo managed to do with sitar player Ustad Nafees Ahmed and his team through their distinct performances at a concert titled ‘Music Without Borders’ at the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) on Tuesday evening endorsed the observation that even in its most experimentally ‘fused’ form music can be an experience like no other.

The show started off with Ustad Nafees Ahmed’s rendition of raga kalavati. He was accompanied on stage by Ustad Bashir Khan (tabla). Nafees Ahmed, a Napa’s faculty member, did not take long to get into the groove of the pentatonic scale, playing the softer notes with the kind of feeling that’s required for the raga, nicely supported by Bashir Khan who kept things unfussy and simple. Their synchronization in terms of ending set-pieces was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience.

Napa students, led by faculty member Intizar Husain, presented raga rageshri. According to Nafees Ahmed, the students had especially prepared the composition for the event. It was a decent effort. Only if Intizar Husain could keep a little away from the microphone while hitting the higher notes, he can be an asset to the country’s music industry.

The second part of the concert comprised a half a dozen popular Italian songs based on classical music performed by Marco Giliberti and Mariano Sanfilippo. Both did a praiseworthy job, especially Sanfilippo who performed in a manner that even those in the audience who were not familiar with the genre enjoyed it. However, Giliberti’s solo performance on the piano, with flowing, cascading notes, was the highlight of the segment.The final part of the show, which was hyped as the surprise item, was a bit of fusion music played by Nafees Ahmed, Marco Giliberti and Mariano Sanfilippo accompanied by the young Waqas Gulab on the tabla. They presented raga bhairvi with a dash of Italian classical tune. In order to keep the originality of both genres intact, the sitar player first played the scale. When he stopped, Giliberti and Sanfilippo came up with their interpretation of the scale, followed by Nafees and Waqas’s representation of the raga. The attempt was appreciated by music lovers.

The last piece of the evening was the famous Neapolitan song ‘O sole mio’.