A sitar stirs up the Hartford Symphony

“We’re doing things a little differently this time,” conductor Carolyn Kuan confided at the start of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s “Scheherezade & Shankar” Masterworks concert. Next to the base of her podium, near the principal violinist, was a colorful raised mat. It was the playing area not just for guest sitar soloist Anupama Bhagwat but for the HSO’s principal percussionist Robert McEwan, who was playing the tricky small finger drums, the tabla.

The tabla graced another staid Hartford arts institution’s stage this year, as the live soundtrack for Alaudin Ullah’s monologue “Dishwasher Dreams” at Hartford Stage. It is an instrument of infinite variety, providing subtle background effects or vibrant rhythmic solos.

But of course the star of this first half of the concert was the sitar, which is as interesting to watch being played as it is to hear. One of the premiere sitar players of her generation, Bhagwat seemed to be in a world of her own, showcasing this versatile instrument while the orchestra swelled around her.

The presence of a sitar and tabla make for an interesting change in orchestral procedure, and their relative quietness and subtlety made another change necessary: microphones positioned near these instruments, and even an onstage monitor to amplify the sounds for the performers.

Even when heard through a speaker, there’s a strong human element to seeing a sitar played live that goes beyond the image of the player sitting cross-legged and meditatively on the mat. The sitar needs to be tuned a lot. Bhagwat took an opportunity to tune between nearly every section of the four-part concerto Friday. There are several reasons why a sitar needs to be tuned frequently — the number of pegs and strings, the sensitivity of the instrument and the lack of a standard tuning that encompasses all the ragas written for it. The player pausing to tune provides a neat break in the otherwise dreamy and otherworldly evening.

Shankar composed his “Sitar Concerto No. 1″ in 1970, and when hearing it, it’s hard not to think of The Beatles. The 1960s and ‘70s a particularly prolific period of recording and performing for Shankar, whose career spanned six decades. The concerto has some similarities with the playing he does in George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh and the 1973 album “Ravi Shankar and Friends,” which is how most people may know his work. It also has riffs in common with the Beatles song “Within You Without You,” by Harrison, Shankar’s famous student. Moreover, the way Shankar arranges for orchestra resembles orchestral arrangements the Beatles’ producer George Martin did for some of the band’s movies. This isn’t exactly the equivalent of hearing the “William Tell Overture” and not being able to get the Lone Ranger out of your head, but it is a little frustrating that when hearing Shankar’s work it’s hard to shake the Fab Four.

As Kuan explains, Anupama Bhagwat is charged with replicating Ravi Shankar’s original solo for the concerto note for note, despite him having improvised a chunk of it. Kuan also noted that Indian music comes from an aural rather than written-down compositional tradition, so Bhagwat memorized the piece without sheet music. (She does have a notebook by her side that she occasionally refers to.)

She may be playing Shankar’s solo note for note, but Bhagwat’s playing is different from Shankar’s as found on his famous recording of the concerto in 1971 (with Andre Previn conducting the London Symphony Orchestra). Shankar’s style is more staccato, pluckier. Bhagwat brings a gentler, smoother tone, blending nicely into what the orchestra is doing behind her.

Shankar’s concerto has a basic back-and-forth quality to it. The orchestra either mimics something the sitar does or it provides a simple set-up —some grand chord or an atmospheric feel — for the sitar to do its thing around. Despite intriguing instrumentation — two harps, timpani, celeste and two clear oboes among a more typical amount of strings, horns and flutes — the overall effect is not deep, but a rich tapestry is not what Shankar is going for here. This is a showcase for the sitar, and the sitar earns it.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherezade” follows the intermission. This piece has the complexity, the interwoven details and harmonies and textures, the Shankar’s sitar-centered concerto lacks. It’s an ideal complement, and the orchestra savors its richness. Under Kuan’s baton, the harp accents the violins, the brass caps the cello and bass bits and everything rubs up against each other just right. There’s also quite a lot for first violinist Leonid Sigal to do, and his playing gives this symphony inspired “1001 Arabian Nights” a real storyteller’s voice.

In mid-concert remarks on Friday, conductor Carolyn Kuan paid tribute to several orchestra members who had retired from the ensemble during the COVID-19 hiatus or during this season. One of the retirees, tuba player Steve Perry, is performing this weekend. Others will be attending Sunday’s concert to be thanked in person. Perry’s colleagues in the brass section even blew a few blasts in his honor.

Such announcements would suggest that this is the end of the current HSO Masterworks season, but in fact there are still two concerts left to go: the rescheduled “From the New World” slate of Antonin Dvorák, Harry Burleigh and Florence Price on May 26 (postponed from January due to COVID-19 and now presented as a single performance in The Bushnell’s larger Mortensen Hall) and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (as well as Philip Glass’s “Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra”) June 10-12.

Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s “Scheherezade and Shankar” Masterworks concert continues through Sunday at the Belding Theater in The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford. Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m. $38-$72. hartfordsymphony.org.

Christopher Arnott can be reached at carnott@courant.com.