Review: Benjamin Appl (Utzon Music)
Lyric baritone Benjamin Appl entrances with a recital of 22 songs made beautiful, powerful, tender and menacing by turns.
Lyric baritone Benjamin Appl entrances with a recital of 22 songs made beautiful, powerful, tender and menacing by turns.
Every time the Vienna-based Australian soprano Alexandra Flood returns home, young singers seek her advice about art song. Now she’s establishing a festival to ensure its future.
Eight international and Australian artists, including The Gesualdo Six, the Brodsky Quartet, Andrea Lam and James Morley, will perform in the intimate SOH space.
SCO's Autumn Digital Season features three eclectic concerts, with works from comtemporary composers alongside classics of the repertoire.
This Appl didn’t fall very far from Fischer-Dieskau’s tree.
Benjamin Appl was Gramophone Young Artist of the Year 2016, suggesting a 20-something budding talent. It was a surprise then to discover he was born in 1982 and, as evident from this recital, is a fully mature artist. Lieder-philes would have been alerted by his Wigmore Hall Schubert recital with the venerable Graham Johnson, which I will eagerly now hunt out. This release signals a serious intent – a Konzept Liederabend if you will – its title one of those succinct words that defy direct translation; a sense of national affinity for one’s homeland. Appl has contrived his tribute to two homelands; having grown up near Regensburg, Schubert and Brahms figure heavily with some Wolf, Strauss, Reger and Schreker thrown in for good measure, while some British songs and Poulenc’s Hyde Park represent his residency in London since 2010. Most moving is Adolf Strauss’ Ich weiß bestimmt, ich werd’ dich wiedersehen (I know I shall see you again) written in Terezin before the composer was murdered at Auschwitz. The recital concludes with two songs in german by Grieg. Appl has a lovely voice with a degree of grain to add gravitas – he sings “on the words” but not so…