One of the delights of Indian classical music is that it can be such an easy-going affair. Amjad Ali Khan may not enjoy quite the status of Ravi Shankar among western audiences, but he is rightly regarded as a major celebrity at home in India, and as the finest living exponent of the sarod – the wonderfully versatile instrument that looks like a cross between guitar and thick-necked banjo, but constructed from wood and goat skin.

Khan, himself resembling a laid-back academic crossed with an elderly rock star, sat cross-legged and opened with his first virtuoso instrumental, based around a Bengal folk tune. One of a series of Indian music concerts at the Wigmore Hall, tonight was a demonstration of two classical traditions. It began with the south Indian (Carnatic) vocal work of Sanjay Subrahmanyan, who dominated the hall without a microphone. He began his musical training as a violinist; here his gently powerful, improvised and fluid singing was matched by equally fine violin work from Santhanam Varadarajan. Then came Khan, demonstrating the northern (Hindustani) tradition, backed by the ancient pakhawaj hand drums, with ragas that included work by India's great 16th-century composer, the court musician Miyan Tansen.

His pieces all started slowly, with his plectrum picking out a theme on single strings, then gradually developed, with the percussion joining in as he balanced the melodies against rhythm work. He then introduced passages of furious improvisation, a rapid-fire flurry of notes, delicate strumming, or sections where the fretless neck of the sarod was used to produce "gliding" effects, like a blues player's steel guitar. It was a masterful set, gentler than I have heard from him in the past, but sadly brief.