György Kurtág, Dietrich Fischer Dieskau & Christmas in Regensburg: three very different, very personal recordings projects for baritone Benjamin Appl

Benjamin Appl in recital in 2020

Baritone Benjamin Appl has been having a busy time of it in the recording studio and has three contrasting albums out on Alpha Classics between now and May 2025, the first is The Christmas Album with the Regensburger Domspatzen, Munich Radio Orchestra, with conductor Florian Helgath, the second focuses on György Kurtág, released for the composer’s 99th birthday, and the third is Benjamin’s celebration of the centenary of his mentor Dietrich Fischer Dieskau.

The Christmas Album has several personal references. From the age of 9 to 18, Benjamin was a member of the Regensburger Domspatzen, and the disc also features Benjamin singing with his mother accompanying him on guitar. For Benjamin it was a personal project and a nice one, working with the boys for the first time since he left the choir. Also, he sees Christmas as a time for reflection, for looking at things with a sense of proportion and for thinking about family. These are important things for someone who travels so much; he sees it as important that he grounds himself in his thoughts, and reminds himself of a different time.

So the disc is a mix of pieces. Some are familiar from performances with his family where his mother plays the guitar for fun, including Alpine songs that they sang as children. Then there is music performed with the Regensburg boys, German traditional music, Bach and other motets. And of course, having lived in London for 15 years, he felt it was important to include music by John Rutter. The disc reflects things of importance to him at Christmas; things from when he was a child, looking back to his years in Regensburg but also now. 

The Christmas Album – Benjamin Appl, Regensburger Domspatzen,

When it comes to Christmas 2024, however, things are less clear. Benjamin is performing as Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at Hamburg State Opera [further details]. He has a few days free which will either be spent with family in Bavaria, or in Hamburg. Christmas is the same every year, he is usually travelling and any decision has to be made at the last minute.

Benjamin left the Regensburger Domspatzen over 20 years ago and a lot has changed. His recording sessions were the first time he had worked with them since he left at 18. The choir is a lot more modern in its approach, not only in terms of the building where the choir rehearses but also in the relationship between the boys and their teachers. Benjamin’s first rehearsal with them was in January 2024, and he found it interesting to hear the sound of the choir, finding it very different from British trebles. Benjamin thought the Regensburg boys made a more Romantic, bigger, warmer sound than their British counterparts, but also the sound was not as clear as British boys. Also, the tradition of the Regensburg choir is very Bavarian Catholic.

Listening to them, he was reminded of so many stories of his time as a member of the choir; little anecdotes that he thought he had forgotten, making his encounter with the choir rather extraordinary, particularly as he had not done anything with them since leaving the school.

On 21 February 2025, Benjamin is releasing his Kurtág album. He admits that it is perhaps something of a niche project. He has spent five years (since 2019) working with Kurtág, whom he calls one of the great composers of our time, and the album is being released to coincide with Kurtág’s 99th birthday in February 2025. The centrepiece of the disc is Kurtág Hölderlin Gesänge. Written in 1990, the composer regards them as his best work in terms of the connection between text and music.

Working with Kurtág on the songs was a highly demanding process, they could work on a single bar for three hours. Benjamin would be exhausted after rehearsal and came to realise that he would never be fully able to learn the songs in the way Kurtág required them. For Benjamin, it is a difficult but beautiful album. Kurtág has not written a lot of vocal music and there are five or six world premiere recordings on the disc. But there are also Schubert songs, songs that are dear to Kurtág and his wife. Kurtág made the selection of Schubert’s songs and plays the piano in two of the pieces, and was present at all of the recording sessions. For the remainder of the Schubert songs, Benjamin is accompanied by his regular collaborator, James Baillieu, and for the Kurtág items, by Pierre Laurent Aimard, a long-time friend of Kurtág .

György Kurtág and Benjamin Appl during the recording of Lines of Life

The whole recording process was very tense, Benjamin estimates that they made around 1,600 takes across four recording periods, each of two to four days. It became the most demanding recording that he had done. When recording the Schubert songs, he wanted to honour the poet and the composer, but a giant like György Kurtág also has opinions, and Benjamin wanted to honour him too, meaning that his role as interpreter was not an easy one. At the end of the day, Benjamin describes Kurtág as someone difficult to please, but the composer is relatively happy with the recording, so Benjamin is happy too.

Before that disc is released, Benjamin passes another milestone, his debut as a conductor. He is artist in residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for 2024/25, and on 11 January 2024 he will be conducting them, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir, and soloists Anna Devin (soprano), Silke Gäng (mezzo-soprano), James Way (tenor) and Alex Rosen (bass), in Handel’s Messiah. [further details] When planning his conducting debut, he wanted to do something working with singers and with a choir. He is fond of the Liverpool forces, having worked with them previously and found them nice, open-minded people. Choosing Messiah meant that it was a piece that they know well but also he has sung it, so he can bring the point of view of a singer, someone who likes text.

When I asked if he was planning to do more conducting he simply smiled and said ‘let’s see’. He was interested in conducting as a child, doing so in his family’s living room. For Messiah, he has done six or seven months of intensive preparation and has found it fascinating the way it gives him a different view of the score. He has to look at the score and make decisions; to understand each instrument and what it needs, what the possibilities are. There is an ocean of requirements, but he finds it fulfilling and very physical, he is the nuclear centre of everything. As a singer, much of your focus is on the larynx and the upper body, but as a conductor, the focus sits lower, for Benjamin this is a different sensation.

He finds the psychological aspect of conducting interesting too, it isn’t just waving your hands in the air!

Benjamin Appl and Dietrich Fischer Dieskau

Also as part of his Liverpool residency, Benjamin will be performing Jörg Widmann‘s Schumannliebe for voice and ensemble [further details] in which Widmann takes the 16 poems by Heinrich Heine, which were originally set to music in Schumann’s famous song cycle Dichterliebe. Widmann presents the poems in the same sequence as the original and keeps the vocal part almost unchanged. Benjamin finds it an interesting piece, the closest parallel he can think of is Hans Zender and his Schubert’s Winterreise. Benjamin performed Schumannliebe as a jump-in at the very last minute at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, so the first time he heard it properly was at the performance. He refers to the work’s wonderful colours in the orchestration and is looking forward to presenting it in Liverpool.

Benjamin’s final appearance in Liverpool this season links to a wider celebration, the centenary of the great baritone Dietrich Fischer Dieskau [further details]. Benjamin’s concert is a personal tribute linked to his disc with pianist James Baillieu which comes out in May 2025. Benjamin has had access to Dieskau’s letters and diaries, which he feels is a great privilege and enabled him to illuminate different aspects of Dieskau’s personality. In the recital there will be a mixture of songs and quotes from the letters, enabling the audience to get to know the more private person, a very human artist, one who suffered from nerves, for instance. For both the album and the concert, Benjamin has made what might be seen as unusual music choices.

There is music written by Dieskau’s father and brother, music which shaped him, songs by his brother with Dieskau’s texts. There is also music reflecting his time as a prisoner of war, where he was learning repertoire as an autodidact and performed Schubert’s Winterreise a cappella to an audience of around 6,000. There are Russian songs and songs by Debussy. There is music reflecting the complications of his starting a career in the UK and the USA as a German national, his friendship with Benjamin Britten but also his links with Aribert Reimann (who wrote his opera Lear at Dieskau’s suggestion) and Samuel Barber. Benjamin will be doing an extensive tour of his celebration of Dietrich Fischer Dieskau concert in 2025, including London (at the Queen Elizabeth Hall) and other UK dates plus the USA, Spain, Verbier, and Germany.

He admits that he has spent a lot of time in the recording studio recently, but with Kurtág’s birthday and Dieskau’s centenary, they did not have a lot of flexibility. It is the first time he has released three discs so close together.

Benjamin Appl (Photo: Uwe Arens)

Benjamin Appl in Liverpool

• 11 January 2025 – Handel: Messiah – further details
• 5 March 2025 – Widmann: Schumannliebe – further details
• 18 June 2025 – To Dieter Dietrich Fischer Dieskau celebration – further details

Benjamin Appl’s new releases on Alpha Classics

• The Christmas Album – ALPHA1079 – out now
• Lines of Life: a collaboration with György Kurtág – ALPHA1145 – released 14 February 2025
• To Dieter: The Past and Future – ALPHA1131