Duo’s gift of Celtic fare

Irish violinist Martin Hayes and American guitarist Dennis Cahill are a rare musical duo, bringing together a wealth of individual musical history into a charmed creative combination.

Never predictable, their program at the Skirball Cultural Center on Thursday focused the spotlight on Hayes’ fiddle playing, rooted in the sweetly lyrical style of Ireland’s County Clare.

With Cahill offering a subtle, laid-back but extremely vital accompaniment role, the duo ranged through a series of medleys, gathering a richly diverse set of reels, jigs, airs and ballads. The shifts from one tune to another were accomplished -- in Celtic manner -- with sudden changes of rhythm and key, the resulting dramatic impact beautifully illustrating Hayes’ description of the duo’s work as “a three-way conversation between the two of us and the music.”

The first half of the program unfolded in relatively placid fashion. Hayes’ precise bowing shaped the dancing melodies with a singing tone and careful attention to the tiny ornamentations characteristic of Celtic music.

Cahill, for the most part, concentrated on a spare harmonic accompaniment based on chordal implication rather than direct statement.

The intensity rose considerably in the second half, most notably in the passages in which Hayes, his long black hair flying in all directions, began to whip through a series of driving improvisations. And toward the end of the set, when Cahill finally began to add his own melodic touches, the music exploded into concentric circles of sound -- a climactic display of creativity from a pair of gifted, cross-cultural artists.