SONGS AT THE EDGE OF THE SNOW LINE

A Conversation With Benjamin Appl

Few can say they have enjoyed the patronage of a living legend at the very start of their career. As the last pupil of the epoch-defining singer Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, German-British baritone Benjamin Appl is one who can stake such a claim. Abandoning a highly promising career in finance, the Bavarian-born artist burst onto the international music scene in the 2015/16 season when he took part in the Rising Stars concert tour as the nominee of London’s Barbican Centre, before going on to winning an award for ‘Young Artist of the Year’ at the Gramophone Awards 2016. We spoke with the 40-year-old singer about Bach and the Romantic song culture, his work with György Kurtág, his connections to both the artistic and business circles and his recording of Schubert’s Winterreise in the Swiss Alps. B y Péter Merényi

In recent years, you’ve brought out two records featuring vocal works by the Bach family, primarily Johann Sebastian Bach. What is the important of these works for you? When I sang in the Regensburg boys’ choir as a child, we performed a great number of Bach motets. Subsequently, I often sang the passions and the Christmas Oratorio series of cantatas. So Bach was always an important composer for me. I believe the most important thing in his work is its well thought-out musical structure, his analytical way of thinking as a composer and the art of counterpoint; at the same time, behind the well-structured fabric of the music, a rich horizon of feelings and emotions is revealed.

We first had the chance to hear you at Müpa Budapest in 2016 as part of the Rising Stars international concert series and you later performed at the Bridging Europe festival presenting German culture in 2021. But this is the first time you’re giving a concert at the Liszt Academy.

What’s more, this is the first time I’ll be performing with the Gabetta Consort! Our concert falls on Holy Saturday, which played a very important role in the life of a composer as deeply religious as Bach. We begin the programme with two perfectly tailored secular compositions which display a little-known, more rarely heard side of Bach. The rest of the programme is based on the ecclesiastical period of Easter, including arias from the timeless St Matthew Passion, as well as orchestral works and pieces that call for a solo singer, where the ideas are defined by contemporary notions of death and the fervent belief in the existence of afterlife. I’m interested in the attitude of people of that time to life and death: the solo cantata that begins with Ich habe genug, especially the closing aria that contrasts the approach of death with a nonetheless cheerful mood, is a great example of this – and it’s no coincidence that it also marks the conclusion of the programme. These pieces present a major challenge, but at the same time it’s also a great experience if I can successfully deliver a convincing performance for the audience.

You’ve sung numerous operatic roles at many of the world’s opera houses. How do these experiences help you – even at the coming concert in Budapest – when you sing Bach’s cantatas?

Opera is a complex genre: director, conductor and répétiteur together inspire the singer, enriching their palette with a variety of colours, emotions and characters. I can profit from this knowledge at song recitals and in performing oratorical works.

The culture of German Romantic song also plays a key role in your work. The Lied, the German song genre, is very close to my heart. For almost four years, I had the chance to work with the outstanding German lyric baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who passed away in 2012. I have been deeply moved by Winterreise since I was a teenager. In this song cycle, Schubert never shows off or entertains and instead the music is sincere and from the heart. Wherever I go in the world, I try to make young people fall in love with German song culture.

Winterreise is also the subject of a special concert film you recorded with the bbc at the Julier Pass in the Swiss Alps, surrounded by snow at a height of almost 2,300 metres, which was first screened last year. We shot the film in harsh conditions – in minus 16 °C weather and 60 centimetres of snow –so the work was a big challenge even though I’d already performed Winterreise more than a hundred times before. The visuals of the film were magnificent, that’s how important the popularisation of German song culture is to the British public service broadcaster!

I’ve read that you’re a dual German-British citizen, but spent most of your life in Germany. I grew up in the Bavarian town of Regensburg where, as I mentioned before, I sang in the boys’ choir of St Peter’s Cathedral. I never dreamed that I’d be a musician. I couldn’t imagine living the lifestyle I have today and that I’d be travelling the world with a suitcase and living off my vocal cords. I always thought that it didn’t pay to be a musician. I graduated in finance and accounting and went to work at a bank. But later on, I felt a strong drive to explore my inner self and realised that self-reflection of this kind might find fulfilment in an artistic profession.

How does your business training help you manage your career?

It’s good that I’m ready to negotiate with bank officials about my new mortgage! [laughs] All joking aside, a business diploma and analytical skills are a big help. I use my knowledge of negotiating technique in my life as an artist as well – particularly when I have discussions with sponsors or clients from the business world, since I know their way of thinking and motivations.

Now that you’ve raised the issue of the relationship between the world of business and the arts, there’s a much stronger tradition of artistic sponsorship in the English-speaking countries than in Europe. There are advantages to both systems. In Germany, culture is mainly supported by the state. This is great because it has a stimulating effect on projects with an experimental nature; for example, promoting the performance of contemporary music in concerts, so it’s not completely at the mercy of ticket revenues. On the other hand, the primarily market-based financing of the arts – as in Canada, for example –has the benefit of making financial support for culture something to be expected among the wealthiest sections of society.

A few years ago you began a close collaboration with György Kurtág. You’re considered a specialist in his Hölderlin-Gesänge for baritone, the six songs of which are performed by the singer almost without instrumental accompaniment, except for some brass in the third song.

The Konzerthaus Dortmund dedicated its Zeitinsel (Time Island) festival in February 2020 to the works of Kurtág, ahead of which the concert hall’s artistic director asked for the composer’s advice about the programme. Kurtág enthusiastically suggested the Hölderlin-Gesänge, which he saw as one of his most successful works in terms of the integration of text and music. A suitable singer was chosen through a lengthy four-round casting process. Ten baritones were auditioned from all over the world – including me – and the recordings were sent to Kurtág, who shortlisted five names. In the next round, we had to sing a short excerpt from the Hölderlin-Gesänge, after which three of us remained. Kurtág then asked for recordings of the singers in a lower register, and finally I won the commission.

How was your encounter with the composer?

I was already aware – as I’d heard from a number of colleagues – that Kurtág is an extremely demanding composer who concerns himself with even the smallest details. At the first rehearsal, the aforementioned artistic director in Dortmund and representatives of Kurtág’s publisher [UMP Editio Musica Budapest – Ed.] were present, along with a film crew, as director Dénes Nagy is making a documentary on the composer which is scheduled for release in 2024. I clearly remember the moment when the composer’s wife Márta Kurtág [who passed away in autumn of 2019 – Ed.] said to me after half an hour, ‘You’re our man!’

Do you visit Budapest regularly to work with him in person?

We’re mainly occupied with Schubert’s songs and of course the Hölderlin-Gesänge. We’ve been working on it for years and it’s quite a Sisyphean task as on several occasions we’ve gone through all the details of the work again and again from the beginning.

[The preparations are documented in 18 hours of film –Ed.] Kurtág has an extraordinary knowledge of music, music history and other composers, but he’s also at home in the fields of philosophy, literature and fine art. This is refreshing for me, since these days the music profession is often about money and business.

I understand you’re working on a new album with the composer.

Over the last few days [the interview was conducted in December 2022 – Ed.], I’ve spoken with him about the pieces on the album. I hope the record will come out soon, on which Kurtág himself accompanies me on piano. We’ve put together an album of a personal nature, presenting the collaboration of a singer with one of the greatest living composers today. With that in mind, we’re also publishing background documents on its creation, so the listener can familiarize Kurtág’s teaching approach and what’s important for him. The album will be released on the Alpha Classics label, which I record for exclusively.

I’ve read that you also collaborated with another Hungarian, writer and Holocaust survivor Éva Fahidi, for which you requested no payment. Éva is an extraordinary person. After we got to know each other a few years ago, the idea of a joint production arose: she spoke about her life, while I sang German songs that held particular significance for her. As a young woman before the Shoah, Éva had trained as a classical musician and pianist. At the performance, I sang songs from Schubert, Schumann, Wagner and Brahms, as well as from composers who wrote in the concentration camps, such as the Czech Hans Krása. We performed the programme in Germany and England: understandably, it had a completely different effect on audiences in the two countries, but was none the less moving in both.