Fantasia Orchestra with Jasdeep Singh Degun: Between the Raags at Smith Square Hall is a dynamic evening of orchestral music where Western classical tradition meets Indian classical roots in bold, unexpected harmony. Featuring sitar virtuoso Jasdeep Singh Degun alongside Fantasia’s musicians under the baton of conductor Tom Fetherstonhaugh, the concert blends minimalist, Baroque and contemporary pieces with raga-inflected compositions, inviting listeners into a sound world that feels both familiar and freshly electrifying.
The programme opens on Terry Riley’s In C, a hypnotic piece built from short repeating musical cells that unfold at their own pace, weaving sitar and orchestral tones into a shimmering tapestry of sound. From the first layered phrases, you feel a pulse rather than a march, a resonance that connects Eastern and Western music through rhythm and repetition rather than strict formality.
What works especially well in this concert is how each piece feels like a conversation rather than a performance in isolation. When Degun steps forward with his sitar for his own Rageshri or Arya (Sitar Concerto): movement II, his intricate lines spiral with lyricism, meeting the orchestra’s strings and winds with a natural ease rather than opposition. These moments don’t feel like fusion for its own sake; they feel like music finding its shared roots across continents.
Placed between these raga-rich performances are two exquisite scenes from Jean-Philippe Rameau’s French Baroque operas, Thunderstorm from Platée and Tristes Apprêts from Castor et Pollux, reimagined here with sitar taking the lead on melodic lines that would more typically belong to harpsichord or flute. It’s a bold choice that surprises and delights: the familiar curves of Baroque lyricism take on a new voice, grounded and slightly earthy without losing their elegance.
Philip Glass’s Echorus arrives with a reflective stasis, its layered patterns gently folding back on themselves, offering a moment of quiet contemplation amid the evening’s bold sonic experimentations. The sound swells, softens and swirls, and in that slow evolution, you can hear why minimalism and Indian classical forms have always found points of kinship.
By the end of the concert, Between the Raags feels less like a programme of separate pieces and more like a journey through musical language itself, one that honours tradition while inviting fresh ears and open hearts. With thoughtful programming and intelligent collaboration between sitar and orchestra, this performance makes a compelling case for the beauty of musical dialogue across cultures.
