ISLAMABAD: A concert featuring Ashraf Sharif Khan on the sitar and Mohammad Ajmal on the tabla was held at on Friday to celebrate South Asian classical music.

Hosted by the Asian Study Group, the evening commenced with a traditional Raag Bageshri, which is popular in Carnatic music and is described as a late night ode to the emotions of a woman waiting for her lover.

Performed solely by Mr Khan on the sitar, the raag had an embedded sweetness and Mr Khan conjured feeling from his sitar, both in his style of the notes and the range of the composition.

The first performance was a minimalist affair where Ashraf Sharif Khan harmonized effects from the lower strings with a slow repetitive sound that gradually and beautifully developed into a flurry of notes before finally reaching a crescendo after half an hour.

Speaking to the captivated audience, Mr Khan said: “I believe that music is the perfect medium to express emotion. In the music of South Asia, raga embodies a particular mood, season, or time of day. In every performance I try to use the music and the instrument to capture the feeling in my heart and to convey this to my audience, so that they can feel in that moment what I am feeling. If I succeed in this, the music seems to take on a life of its own, moving me, and, I hope, the audience.”

Then he presented his accompanying tabla player, Mr Ajmal, who complemented him with improvised pieces that comprised solos and passages. The duo indulged in a matching rapid-fire.

Mr Khan indulged in alternating with strumming the chords of the sitar and then substituting to elusive, almost elegiac passages before speeding up once again.

Mr Ajmal effortlessly rebuked the onslaught with matching rhythmic tabla beats that ranged from ten to sixteen beats.

The result was an enthralled audience that was swept away by the demonstration of technique and coinciding emotion.

At one point during the evening, when asked by an audience member which one “the best raga” is, Mr Khan enthusiastically replied: “The best raga is the one you enjoy most.”

The concert concluded with a piece that was organised along the approach of a customary masterpiece that is in three movements, fast-slow-fast, and ended with a technically demanding improvisation.

But the work was far from traditional, as the sitar and tabla blurred the lines between solo and accompaniment.

Neither was compliant to the other, and the musical lines often appeared to fight with each other, but the magic was in the merging of both distinctive sounds that instead of being final and declarative, insisted on unison.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2017