Explore what's on: Sunday 31 January 2010

Presented in collaboration with the Aga Khan Music Initiative, a programme of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

Alim Qasimov is Azerbaijan’s best-known and most beloved singer, hailed by the Guardian as ‘one of the most thrilling, unashamedly emotional performers on the planet, and the finest exponent of mugham’.

Azerbaijani Mugham is a sophisticated form of sung poetry and music. Qasimov’s work has been influenced by, and compared to, the music of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and his appearance with his ensemble at the Barbican in 2008 was hailed by the critics – in the words of The Telegraph: ‘Qasimov and his daughter perform a meditation on the spiritual agonies of unrequited love – the sentiments were as complex as a John Donne poem. Qasimov’s ecstatic soaring vocal lines added an almost unbearable poignancy’.

RNCM in association with Serious