There is an abundance of recordings of Schubert's Die Winterreise, D. 911, Schubert's beyond-grim breakup song cycle, but baritone Benjamin Appl has much to offer in this 2022 release, his debut on the Alpha label. Appl and his regular accompanist James Baillieu have performed the cycle often and know each other well, and the recording follows on a film treatment in which the two performers provided the music. So it's safe to say that Appl has thought the cycle through, and indeed this shows in the detail he applies (and in ...
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There is an abundance of recordings of Schubert's Die Winterreise, D. 911, Schubert's beyond-grim breakup song cycle, but baritone Benjamin Appl has much to offer in this 2022 release, his debut on the Alpha label. Appl and his regular accompanist James Baillieu have performed the cycle often and know each other well, and the recording follows on a film treatment in which the two performers provided the music. So it's safe to say that Appl has thought the cycle through, and indeed this shows in the detail he applies (and in the commercial success this release has had). The recording's most striking feature is one that Appl seems to have absorbed deeply from his teacher, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who had a quality that might be called conversational but is also something more uncanny. It is as if the singer is addressing the listener directly. This isn't something achieved through some kind of mystical alchemy but through a great variety of inflections in the vocal line that creates an impression of...
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