LONDON — Late on a recent midweek morning, the viol player Liam Byrne was wandering through the Charterhouse, an Elizabethan mansion in central London. The place was hushed; spring sunlight glinted on the gilded decorations and warmed the dark oak paneling.

Mr. Byrne was here to prepare for a concert, but first he wanted to find something. Eventually, in the mansion’s 16th-century chapel, he located a wall plaque commemorating the viol composer Tobias Hume, who was buried here in 1645. Mr. Byrne was pleased. “Hume’s music is amazing,” he said. “Also kind of crazy.”

Mr. Byrne, 36, is regarded by many as the leading viol player of his generation, a specialist in obscure repertoire and a leader in Europe’s early-music scene. But his appearance — hipsterish beard, close-cropped hair, all-black outfit, sneakers — suggested something a little edgier. If it weren’t for the instrument case trundling behind him, you might have mistaken him for a festival promoter or a craft brewer. A tattoo on his left arm depicted the soundhole of his favorite viol.

As a musician, too, Mr. Byrne delights in confounding what you might expect from someone whose instrument had its heyday in England when Elizabeth I was on the throne.