Tord Gustavsen & Kåre Nordståga, Oslo Cathedral, Norway

Kåre Nordståga is the organmaster at Oslo Cathedral; Tord Gustavsen a Norwegian pianist, best known for sparse, romantically inclined explorations of the jazz piano trio. Their atmospheric meeting in the candlelit Oslo Cathedral, billed as Solos in Dialogue, swirled with mood-provoking contrasts as the dense textures of the cathedral organ alternated with Gustavsen’s percussive minimalism.

Nordståga played a selection of contemporary sacred music – the descending chimes and chordal slabs of Messiaen’s Priere après la Communion was his first piece; the dark shades and jagged lines of Jehan Alain’s Deuxieme Fantasie were also featured – and Gustavsen used elements of each piece as a starting point for his own themes and extemporisations.

Sometimes these were a mere trace as the pianist delved into his own pool of influences. Gustavsen’s recordings wander close to the margins of pastiche, but here his search for the melodic purity of Norwegian folk music, north African chatter and the cadential logic of Baroque counterpoint was spellbinding.

At other times, Gustavsen investigated the melody, structure and mood of the preceding piece in depth, intensifying his emotional palette with neoclassical tension and full-pedal rumbles, his body moving to the elliptic contours of his improvised line.

The concert opened and closed with a duet, and each piece was sensitively conjoined by the two musicians improvising together. As good as the solo performances were, it is the combination of textures that lingers most. Each musician intuitively fleshed out, developed or contrasted with the other’s train of thought. And with the organmaster out of sight, his repertoire of fluty high tones, ominous harmonies, triumphant fanfares and harmonium wheezes seemed to emanate from deep within the cathedral’s fabric.

In these duets, powerful organ cadences gained momentum from single well-spaced piano notes,

Gustavsen’s high register trills were supported by brooding organ sustains or the two musicians harmonised in perfect accord. Occasionally, each joined in the other’s solo spot to tweak a mood, impel a rhythm or, as in Aulis Sallinen’s ominous Chaconne, construct a dialogue of interlocking lines and rippling echoes. The final piece was built with the logic of a baroque hymn. It developed to a full-pedal crescendo before fading to a single unadorned note.

Oslo Cathedral