Early Music Now Presents a … Baryton?

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Photo via Valencia Baryton Project - valenciabaryton.com

Valencia Baryton Project

Listeners who attend Early Music Now’s concert on Saturday will get a chance to hear one of the rarest instruments in Western music. Have you heard of…the baryton? 

Matt Baker, based in Valencia, Spain, is one of the world’s few experts in this instrument that was first developed in the Baroque period. Similar in appearance to a viola de gamba (itself a close cousin of the cello), the baryton distinguishes itself from other classical string instruments with its additional set of strings behind the fingerboard that vibrate sympathetically with the bowed strings and can be plucked for added effect. 

In a fascinating footnote in classical music history, Joseph Haydn’s patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, played the baryton. Haydn ended up writing 175 works for the prince to play, mostly trios with viola and cello. These pieces comprise the majority of the existing repertoire for the instrument, but, as Matt Baker would tell you, there’s a wider present and future. 

Baker, who began his musical training in the US as a double bassist, told me about his journey with the baryton: 

“I had a double bass and cello duo with a great cellist, Ben Birtle, and of course we steal everything for repertoire, because there's not that much written for double bass. And so I happened across these Haydn duos that have been arranged for two cellos, originally for barytons, and so we played them, arranged them, but I kept thinking, that's for two barytons. What in the world is a baryton, you know, so I did some research, but I didn't find him. It's impossible to find a baryton.” 

Christmas Gift 

Later, after moving to Valencia, Spain, he got in touch with José Manuel Hernandez, a baryton player living in Madrid. After one lesson, he seriously considered having a baryton made for his own use, until Hernandez surprised him by giving him his instrument: “This is 2018, and I get a phone call on Christmas Eve, saying, ‘I'll sell you the instrument. I'm going to retire.’ I mean, he's still going to play baroque baryton, which is basically a different type of instrument, but the classical baryton… ‘I'm going to retire. I'll sell it to you.’ So that was my best Christmas present ever.” 

At the time, Baker was playing in an opera orchestra, and after a few more lessons with Hernandez, he brought his orchestra colleagues into some sessions where he tried to explore the instrument more. 

“So I bribed them with beer and kebabs. ‘Let's play some Haydn trios together, and then we'll go out for beer and kebabs on me.’ So we started doing it and became more Haydn and less beer, to a point where I thought, ‘Wow, we should play a concert.’ So we did. We played a concert, just a local little concert. Next thing we know, we were playing for national festivals. I had 2 Naxos recording contracts for my string quintets that I do with the double bass, and one of them fell through, and then I don't know why I was brave enough to offer this, but I offered Naxos, ‘Hey, look! I could do a baryton CD if you want,’ and they jumped on it. So all of a sudden I had a deadline, and that's when the pandemic hit. So the CD got pushed back about 6 months, but I had a deadline, and all I did during the pandemic was practice.” 

Trio Concert 

The Valencia Baryton Project will perform in Milwaukee as a trio, with Brett Walfish on viola and Ismar Gomes on cello, but Baker stresses that the instrumentation is always flexible: “It's always been a collective. It's never just been a trio, though it started off that way. But I told the guys from the beginning, look, there are duos written for this instrument. There are octets, quintets, and eventually I'm going to do some things based in jazz, too.” 

Part of the openness to different ensembles is to avoid what he views as the pitfalls of older baryton-focused groups: “Usually groups form, and maybe they work together for four or five, maybe six years, and then usually dissolve somehow. And I think that's because they get Haydn-fixated … [some older ensembles] insisted on playing only Haydn in extremely long concerts, and nobody wants to hear just one composer. And so we really make an effort. Yes, all the classical pieces are Haydn, but they're always interspersed with a modern piece in between. It's like a cleanser, and I think that's super important.” 

Taking into account this balance, not overwhelming the listener with Haydn, Baker still has some favorites to highlight: “The last piece we’re playing, [Trio] No. 57 in A major, shifts between major and minor in an absolutely heart-wrenching manner, and then 82 in C major is not a key he usually wrote for until the end.” 

New Repertoire 

Baker and his collective have by now amassed a lots of new repertoire featuring the baryton, creating a more dynamic field for the future of the instrument, though sometimes its unique traits make for a tricky collaboration. “I love contemporary music, but on the baryton it doesn't always fit that well, because it's an extremely diatonic instrument we have. We're actually applying for series and festivals for contemporary music, because we have nearly two-hours-worth of contemporary music written for us specifically for the trio. But it's been a long learning process, trying to say, ‘Look, wonderful. But it doesn't speak to the instrument.’” 

One of the contemporary pieces on Saturday’s concert, Dragonslayer’s Lament, by London composer John Pickup, shows the potential of the baryton’s unique sound to evoke fantastical worlds: “He told me this was a new flavor, new sound, and it seriously sounds like something a little bit out of, you know, Rohan in Lord of the Rings.” 

In my lengthy conversation with Matt Baker, he shared even more about how he found the right bow for playing the baryton, the unique struggles of traveling with the instrument, and how Haydn’s patron prince dominated the baryton scene of his time, somewhat by force. It all amounts to a fascinating, stimulating topic in music, and if you come to Early Music Now this Saturday, you’ll get an exceedingly rare treat in hearing the baryton, played by someone with contagious passion and insight. 

Saturday, March 1 at St. Paul Episcopal Church, 914 E. Knapp St. For tickets, visit earlymusicnow.org