A sleek, elegant bandoneon-cello tango

Dino Saluzzi is everyone’s favorite bandoneon player. His combination of extraordinary virtuosity and passionate expressiveness on the difficult-to-play Argentine button accordion have made him a performer of choice for a wide range of American (Charlie Haden, Marc Johnson), European (John Surman, Tomasz Stanko) and South American (Gato Barbieri) artists.

Saluzzi’s most compelling partnership, however, has been with the German cellist Anja Lechner. And their program at the Skirball Center on Thursday was a masterful display of cross-cultural chamber music.

Virtually all the selections traced to the duo’s new ECM album, “Ojos Negros,” supplemented by a spontaneous solo number by each artist.

Mostly composed by Saluzzi, the program also included the title-track tango classic, written by bandoneonist Vicente Greco. The selections, and the way they were arranged, were tailor-made for the textural timbres of cello and bandoneon, as well as the unique stylistic qualities of each player. Saluzzi’s “Esquina,” for example, had a floating, airy quality, alternating surprising dissonances with soaring fragments of melody.

Other pieces similarly used open space, sudden shifts of melody, contrasts of single lines and block harmonies.

Lechner’s cello phrases employed the full panoply of the instrument’s extraordinary potential, from sonorous low tones to high harmonics, from jazz-like pizzicatos to the metallic sounds of sul ponticello (playing close to the bridge).

The effect, combined with the intensely atmospheric sound of Saluzzi’s bandoneon, was mesmerizing.

The music was further enhanced by the remarkably synchronized rubato playing. Even in the passages that simmered with an undercurrent of tango rhythms, the time flowed like a living, breathing entity, with Saluzzi and Lechner combining their phrases with the impeccable grace of a pair of elegant, sensuous dancers.

Solo selections provided an opportunity to display their individual improvisational skills. But this was an evening for togetherness, for duo playing of the highest quality.

Saluzzi and Lechner have been performing together, exploring a world that lies somewhere between composition and improvisation, for eight years, and the synchronicity showed in every glimmering, compelling note.