[photo credit: Coleman Chamber Music]
The Valencia Baryton Project arrives at Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium on Sunday for a concert that offers something genuinely rare in the modern concert world: the chance to hear an instrument that once captivated European royalty, then vanished almost entirely from musical life for two centuries.
The baryton—a bowed string instrument that looks something like a cello’s eccentric cousin—represents one of the most sophisticated and complex creations of the Classical period. It has six or seven gut strings played with a bow, plus as many as 20 wire strings running down the back of its neck. These sympathetic strings vibrate in response to the bowed notes, enriching the sound. But here is the truly strange part: through an opening in the back of the neck, the performer’s left thumb can reach in to pluck those wire strings while simultaneously bowing the others.
It is an instrument that demands extraordinary coordination and rewards it with an otherworldly, shimmering tone. It is also an instrument that became obsolete by the 19th century, leaving behind a repertoire that almost no one could play.
A Prince’s Obsession, a Composer’s Output
The baryton owes its remarkable repertoire to a Hungarian aristocrat’s passion and a famous composer’s employment obligations. Prince Nikolaus Esterházy—known as “The Magnificent” for his lavish lifestyle—purchased a baryton in 1765 and became devoted to it. Franz Joseph Haydn, his court composer, received a pointed message: he was not writing enough music for the prince’s favorite instrument.
Haydn responded with astonishing productivity. Between 1766 and 1771, he composed the bulk of his 126 baryton trios—works of, in the words of scholars, “outstanding beauty.” The prince’s estate at Esterháza, often called the “Hungarian Versailles,” became the epicenter of baryton music, with Haydn producing more than 160 works for the instrument during his nearly 30-year tenure.
Sunday’s program includes two of those Haydn trios—No. 50 and No. 72, both in D Major—alongside a trio by Luigi Tomasini, who served as concertmaster under Haydn and wrote his own baryton works for the prince. The concert spans three centuries, reaching back to Renaissance fantasias by John Jenkins and forward to contemporary compositions by John Pickup and David Gorton, a University of London professor and Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize winner.
From Sioux City to Valencia
Matthew Baker, the ensemble’s baryton player, began his professional music career at 13 as the youngest member ever of the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra—on double bass. His path to one of the world’s rarest instruments wound through the Royal Academy of Music in London and eventually to Valencia, Spain, where he now teaches at Berklee College of Music and performs with the opera orchestra at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía.
Baker has done more than preserve the baryton’s historical repertoire. He has expanded it, premiering what was reported to be the first jazz baryton concert ever, with French pianist Baptiste Bailly. His Mozart arrangement for baryton went viral on Classic FM. With the Valencia Baryton Project, he has recorded critically acclaimed albums for Naxos Records, including the label’s first CD of baryton works.
He is joined by Amy Domingues on cello and viola da gamba—a related early instrument—and Brett Walfish on viola. Domingues, who appears on more than 70 albums, was part of Sonnambula, the ensemble in residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Walfish, co-founder of the Rushmore Music Festival, has performed at Carnegie Hall and Tel Aviv Opera House. The ensemble formed through their connections to opera houses in Valencia and Montpellier, France.
America’s Oldest Chamber Series
The concert takes place under the auspices of the Coleman Chamber Music Association, which holds a distinction no other American presenter can claim: it is the nation’s oldest independent chamber music series, founded in 1904.
Alice Coleman, a gifted pianist, launched the series despite skepticism.
“In Southern California, the field of chamber music still remained largely unexplored,” she later recalled. “There followed many conferences with friends, one of whom exclaimed: ‘What! Chamber concerts in Pasadena? It can never be done!'”
She proceeded anyway. The first concert, on January 25, 1904, took place at the old Elks Hall at Raymond Avenue and Colorado Boulevard.
One hundred and twenty-two years later, the series continues—now at Beckman Auditorium, the distinctive circular building nicknamed the “Wedding Cake,” designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone and completed in 1964. The City of Pasadena officially recognized the Coleman Chamber Music Association’s historical significance last November.
The association’s competition for young ensembles has helped launch the careers of groups including Eighth Blackbird and the Tokyo Quartet.
Valencia Baryton Project, presented by the Coleman Chamber Music Association, performs Sunday, January 18, at 3:30 p.m. Tickets are $40 to $70; youth 18 and under pay $25; 50 free tickets are available for Caltech students with valid ID. The concert takes place at Beckman Auditorium, California Institute of Technology, 332 South Michigan Avenue, Pasadena. Parking is free in structures at 341 and 405 South Wilson Avenue. For more, call (626) 793-4191 or visit colemanchambermusic.org.
