APPL, BENJAMIN

Wie Benjamin Appl hoort, moet gelijk aan de in 2012 overleden Duitse bariton Dietrich Fischer-Diskau denken. Het is geen toeval, want het voormalige lid van de Regenburger Domspatzen was de laatste leerling van de legendarische Fischer-Diskau. Dit eerste album voor Champ Hill Records bestaat uit liederen van de eigenzinnige Heinrich Heine, die door diverse componisten als Schubert, Schumann, maar ook door Anton Rubinstein en Fanny en Felix Mendelssohn in muzieknoten is vereeuwigd. Appl beschikt over een heldere stem, spreekt de woorden perfect uit en is op weg om een toonaangevende bariton van onze tijd te worden. Wie het recital afgelopen mei in het Concertgebouw heeft gemist moet zeker dit album beluisteren, waaronder de prachtige Dichterlieder van Schumann.



Heinrich Heine: Lieder
Stunden, Tage, Ewigkeiten

Grieg:
Seks Sange, Op. 48 No. 1 'Gruss'

Mendelssohn:
Gruß, Op. 19a No. 5
Neue Liebe, Op. 19a No. 4
Auf Flügeln des Gesanges, Op. 34 No. 2

Mendelssohn, Fanny:
Schwanenlied Op. 1 No. 1 (Heine)
Warum sind denn die Rosen so blass, Op. 1 No. 3 (Text: Heinrich Heine)

Rubinstein:
Lieder Von Heine (6), Op. 32

Schubert:
Der Atlas, D957 No. 8
Ihr Bild, D957 No. 9
Die Stadt, D957 No. 11
Der Doppelgänger D957 No. 13

Schumann:
Du bist wie eine Blume, Op. 25 No. 24
Dichterliebe, Op. 48
Belsazar, Op. 57

Benjamin Appl (baritone) & James Baillieu (piano)






Currently a BBC New Generation Artist, baritone Benjamin Appl makes his Champs Hill debut with a disc of lieder by Grieg, Rubenstein, Schubert, Felix & Fanny Mendelssohn and Schumann.

All composers set words by Heinrich Heine, one of the most contraversial literary figures of the last 200 years, whose texts still have surprising relevance today.

Benjamin Appl says: “Many of the songs recorded here have become familiar to me over a long period: I programmed Schumann’s Dichterliebe for my very first recital in 2006, unaware of its challenges and rather reckless of me, in retrospect. From the very beginning its musical and poetic language drove me and absorbed me. At the other extreme other songs, such as the lovely op 32 by Anton Rubinstein I discovered much more recently.”

Benjamin Appl was greatly influenced by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who mentored and taught him as his last private student until his death in May 2012. An accomplished performer in opera and beyond, he is an extablished recitalist, performing in Carnegie Hall and the Wigmore Hall, where he was named as an ‘emerging artist’ in 2015.

Described by The Daily Telegraph as ‘in a class of his own’ James Baillieu is a prize-winner of the Wigmore Hall and Das Lied International Song Competitions, and the Kathleen Ferrier and Richard Tauber Competitions. He was selected for representation by Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) in 2010 and in 2012 received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and a Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust Award.