Liam Byrne, are you a hipster violist?

Viola da gamba player Liam Byrne is one of the most versatile musicians in his field. In the latest episode of bee.contemporary, he talks to Steven Walter about the different types of music he moves between. His numerous appearances at the Beethovenfest reveal how broadly he is positioned: with tenor Benedikt Kristjánsson he moves in Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata cosmos, with harpsichordist Elina Albach in the instrumental version of Claudio Monteverdi's opera »Orfeo« in the original repertoire of the early Baroque. With resident ensemble Alarm Will Sound, on the other hand, he plays the latest music by Irish avant-garde composer Donnacha Dennehy, including a world premiere. Liam Byrne has never been interested in the gamba being confined to a historically »authentic« repertoire: »I am obsessed with the gamba. I'm obsessed with its sound... Fidelity to the historical musical text of a work is less important to me.«