In guitarist Sharon Isbin and violinist Mark O’Connor, the music world has two of the most versatile artists, each capable of presenting a varied and engaging solo recital.  Additionally, each has a compulsion for collaboration, and a large audience at the Harris Theater Saturday night found the duo bridging both formats.

Isbin opened the concert with the haunting colors of Isaac Albéniz’s Asturias: Leyenda, originally written for piano, though impossible to tell by the ease with which the guitarist performed.  Her intimate sensitivity drew hushed attention from the audience, and her warm tone was evenly applied to enchanting imagery of Francisco Tárrega’s Recuerdos de la Alhambra and Agustín Barrios’ Waltz, Op. 8, No. 4.  As a prelude to the rest of the concert, Isbin performed Andrew York’s Andecy, a piece fusing folk traditions of England, Ireland, and the United States; its mournful harmonies and resolve would be echoed in works to follow.

O’Connor, the acclaimed fiddle virtuoso, dazzled in his first appearance of the evening, performing four original works for solo violin with a flair made possible only by his flawless bow control and blurring dexterity.  His lyricism and concerto-like riffs blended with trills, drones, syncopation, and slides of a more rustic tradition.  Isbin joined O’Connor for the premier violin/guitar arrangement of his Appalachia Waltz, a soothing melody over a folksy drone.  The arrangement is a natural pairing, as are its performers, with the guitar’s point complimenting the violin’s sustained tones.

The second half of the program began with John Duarte’s Joan Baez Suite, a piece written for Isbin in 2002.  A combination of folk tunes from England, Scotland, and the 1960s American folk music revival, the suite further strengthened the theme of the evening.  O’Connor’s Strings and Threads Suite in thirteen parts for violin and guitar closed the program by tracing the musical journey of Irish immigrants across the Atlantic to Appalachia and points south.  Isbin’s mellow guitar drove the harmonic progression beneath the composer’s boisterous fiddling.

Isbin and O’Connor reprised Appalachian Waltz for the encore, closing a program of rich imagery inspired by a variety of folk idioms and proving that those traditions are still alive and vibrant.