All shall have prizes: Glenn Gould in Thuringia

Message received:

Commencing in May 2020, the Irish Pianist Peter Tuite became the Founding Fellow of the Glenn Gould Bach Fellowship of Thuringia. The Fellowship was subsequently awarded to the German Cellist, Tanja Tetzlaff. Her Fellowship project, the film documentary “Suites for a Suffering World”, related Bach’s cello suites to nature and climate change, exploring ideas of culture, inheritance and civic responsibility.

The next recipient of the Fellowship has now been announced: Viol player Liam Byrne will have the opportunity to spend the next two years working on his project which will focus on the exceptionally rare and beautiful music of the English lyra-viol repertoire from the early 17th century. As Liam Byrne explains, “this intimate and introspective lute-like music plays with the most subtle aspects of the viola da gamba’s resonance, which are not so easy to capture using traditional recording techniques”. The project will thus take an experimental approach to the recording and transmission of lyra-viol music, using this repertoire as a case study to raise broader questions about aesthetics of sound in classical music recording in general.

The project is strongly inspired by Glenn Gould’s hands-on relationship to recording and embraces the artificially constructive aspect of the recording process as a means of giving the listener a deeper relationship to the music and to the physicality of the instrument producing it. “The fellowship offers an incredible opportunity to go beyond what is possible in an everyday professional setting. With the time and support to question all aspects of the recording process, we have the opportunity to make something truly new and hopefully capture some aspects of this esoteric repertoire that have never been heard before,” says Liam Byrne who will present his fellowship project on 14 April as part of the Thuringia Bach Festival 2024 in Weimar.

Viola da gamba player Liam Byrne is one of the most versatile exponents of his instrument. He spent his twenties performing and recording with many of Europe’s leading early music ensembles, including the Huelgas Ensemble, Dunedin Consort, Academy of Ancient Music and Fretwork. In the last decade he has also worked frequently with composers, folk and electronic musicians, discovering new sonic possibilities with his 17th-century instrument that in turn have deeply informed his historical work. He is a member of the Icelandic artist collective and record label Bedroom Community, with whom he released his debut solo album.

Byrne is professor of viola da gamba at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

The Fellowship has a 70,000-Euro budget.