The pathway to an instrument like the baryton is an interesting one because it’s such an unusual instrument. My own journey into the early music world began with the piano, but as an undergraduate student at Melbourne University, I was lucky enough to take up the viola da gamba, which is a close cousin of the baryton. 

That was the first big step. I remember hearing recordings of Jordi Savall while I was still a piano student in the 1990s, and I was entranced by its evocative, earthy and resonant sound. 

Laura Vaughan. Photo © Albert Comper Photography

I was a complete beginner but took to it like a duck to water. Despite having played the piano almost my entire life and with no background as a string player, I felt I’d found my musical home. 

I studied in Holland as a postgraduate student and spent over a decade living in ‘viola da gamba land’. During that time, I peripherally came across pictures and recordings of an even less common instrument: the baryton.

I knew Haydn had composed for it, and the idea that I might try it one day simmered in the...