KARACHI, March 25: The All Pakistan Music Conference’s fourth annual music festival concluded late Saturday night. Though it attracted huge audiences from across the city to the Hindu Gymkhana, for music enthusiasts it somehow remained incomplete as none of the leading tabla and sitar players showed up to enthral their fans and followers.

Originally, the organizers had listed two leading tabla players and a sitar performer in the three-day event. Ustad Abdus Sattar Tari was to perform on tabla on the opening day (Thursday) while Ustad Bashir Khan was to perform on the concluding day, yet none of them turned up.

Similarly, sitar ace Ustad Imdad Hussain did not show up on Saturday night. He was the only sitar player included in the extravaganza and his absence meant there was no representation from sitar players.

Many music enthusiasts had attended the mega event to have a full plate of classical music, but the cuisine remained incomplete. Several visitors, who themselves are artistes or experts on music, kept questioning the reasons behind the absence of these respected musicians.

However, the event did manage to fulfil its key reason, which is supposed to be the revival of hugely-neglected classical music in this region.

Like the previous two days, a packed to capacity crowd turned up on the concluding day and remained glued to their seats till before dawn, when leading Indian vocalist Shubha Mudgal gave an excellent performance.

Besides, Ustad Riaz Ali and Imtiaz Ali of Sham Chorasi family representing Ustad Salamat Ali Khan came from Lahore for their first exposure to the Karachi audience and sang with heart and soul.

Ustad Fateh Ali Khan (Patiala), a senior and highly-acclaimed vocalist of the country, together with son Rustam Fateh Ali, sang ‘Bagesiri,’ an evening melody of ‘kafi thaat,’ and captivated the entire gathering as long as he remained on stage.

An Indian sarangi player who was accompanying Shubha Mudgal also performed solo as a bid by the organizers to fill the gap created due to the absence of Ustad Imdad Hussain and Ustad Bashir Khan. Though it did consume time, a difference of class remained.

Shubha Mudgal, who is famous for her ghazals, confined herself to classical singing as it was the demand of the event. She sang different ragas including ‘Paraj,’ ‘Thumri,’ ‘Bhervi,’ etc and bracketed herself as equally competent along with maestros like Ustad Fateh Ali Khan and other musical wizards.