Benjamin Appl releases three albums on Alpha Classics over the next six months and announces forthcoming engagements in the UK 

Three albums to be released on Alpha Classics:

• The Christmas Album released on 1 November celebrates Christmas through the enduring tradition of Bach chorales and popular carols and Appl is joined by Germany’s most famous children’s choir Regensburger Domspatzen, the Munich Radio Orchestra and his mother on guitar.

• Lines of Life released on 14 February is a collaboration with György Kurtág andfeatures five world premiere recordings alongside Schubert songs that have inspired Kurtág throughout his life and career

• To Dieter: The Past and Future celebrates the centenary of Appl’s hero and mentor Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and is released on 23 May.

Key concert activity includes:

• Benjamin Appl is Artist in Residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra this season and makes his conducting debut in January 2025 with a performance of Handel’s Messiah

• Two Wigmore Hall recitals with lutenist Thomas Dunsford in January and pianist Simon Lepper in June

• Concerts celebrating Fischer-Dieskau’s centenary in Liverpool, London and Shropshire in 2025

Baritone Benjamin Appl’s exclusive partnership with Alpha Classics continues with the release of The Christmas Album (1 November) – his first recording on the label with symphony orchestra and choir. It continues in 2025 with Lines of Life (release date 14 February) – a collaboration with György Kurtág featuring 5 world premieres from the composer alongside a selection of Schubert songs loved by Kurtág. Appl celebrates the centenary of Dieter Fischer-Dieskau – his hero and mentor with an album (release date 23 May) and a series of live concerts with pianist James Baillieu. Appl is Artist in Residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra this season and this includes making his conducting debut (11 January 2025).

The Christmas Album, released on 1 November

Appl returned home to his old childhood choir Regensburger Domspatzen to record The Christmas Album featuring Bach Chorales and popular carols, alongside the Munich Radio Orchestra and conductor Florian Helgath. He comments, ‘Christmas evokes intense memories and emotions in all of us. It takes us back to our childhood: that sense of magic and excitement, so often reawakened by the sight of a traditional Nativity scene, or the lights on a Christmas tree, or by hearing Christmas carols. It was with all these images in mind that I returned to my hometown to record this album with “my” boys’ choir. When, after more than twenty years, I found myself back among the choristers and heard the familiar sound, the emotion was very intense.’

Lines of Life, released on 14 February

Benjamin Appl first met and worked with the great Hungarian composer György Kurtág in 2019 and has since met very regularly with him. Appl says ‘he has shaped me as a musician and person perhaps like no other.’ This album will be released in February 2025 and features Kurtág’s own Hölderlin songs with art songs from the German Romantic period. There are five world premiere recordings by Kurtág and he also plays two piano pieces by Schubert and Brahms. 

Appl comments, ‘I am extremely pleased that we were able to win over two wonderful pianists, Kurtág's long-time friend Pierre-Laurent Aimard and James Baillieu to join us for this recording. In twelve long days, over 1,300 recording takes and countless repetitions, we recorded the album, with many exciting new works. Kurtág was present at all of our recording sessions and acted as producer throughout. Our album and the additional German interview with György Kurtág, is intended to provide an insight into the infinite cosmos of the shy procrastinator, strict self-critic, tentative seeker, introverted questioner, unpretentious intellectual, brilliant composer and extraordinary person György Kurtág. It reflects his view of works of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, as if one were looking at them as an interpreter through the magnifying glass of the great contemporary composer. To this day, he follows the ideal of one of his greatest role models - Béla Bártok: to remain true to himself. He does not write music to please or to be liked. He only seeks truth.’

To Dieter: The Past and Future, released on 23 May

To Dieter: The Past and Future will be released in May 2025 to celebrate Dieter Fischer-Dieskau’s centenary and is Appl’s tribute to his hero and mentor. He is joined by one of his regular collaborator’s pianist James Baillieu. The album features songs by Fischer-Dieskau’s father and brother and his own poetry none of which have been recorded before, as well as music from every era of his life including music by Schubert, Brahms, Strauss, Britten, Barber, Mahler, Schumann, Wolf, Verdi, Bach, Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and more.

Benjamin comments, ‘Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau would have been 100 years old on May 28, 2025. He shone a light on German Lieder unlike almost any other artist and gave it new life in the modern day. His singing reached so many people and he touched their hearts with the art of song. To this day he is considered to be a source of inspiration, a role model to thousands of singers, with many of his recordings remaining unsurpassed. At a public master class in Schwarzenberg, Austria, in the summer of 2019, I was able to get to know my greatest idol and work with him for the first time. To this day, I consider this encounter and the resulting years of collaboration to be one of the greatest gifts of my professional life. For me he was more than “just” a teacher: he helped me considerably with technical and interpretive ideas, but also advised me in the art of performing on stage and crafting programs. He was a real mentor to me in so many ways. I feel fortunate that I was able to see him just before his death, in the spring of 2012 at his home on Lake Starnberg and that I can cherish that final memory. In the last few months, I was able to go through Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's private documents and, in his diary entries, letters and notes, gain an insight into the private person that Fischer-Dieskau was. Thank you, Dieter.’

Celebrating Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in Concert

Alongside the release of his Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau album, Appl celebrates his hero, mentor and teacher with a number of live concerts, which will see him share memories and anecdotes about the iconic baritone through his own personal diaries (2 March, Queen Elizabeth Hall; 7 March, St Chad’s Church, Shrewsbury; 18 June, Tung Auditorium, Liverpool).

Artist in Residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Benjamin Appl is Artist in Residence with the Liverpool Philharmonic in the 2024/25 season. He will make his conducting debut with Handel’s Messiah and is joined by soloists Anna Devin (soprano), Silke Gäng (mezzo-soprano), James Way (tenor) and Alex Rosen (bass), alongside the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir (11 January). Benjamin’s residency also features a performance with Ensemble 10:10 of Widmann’s Schumannliebe which is inspired by Schumann’s great song cycle Dichterliebe (5 March). The final concert is a celebration of his hero and mentor Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (18 June).

Wigmore Hall

Benjamin Appl and lutenist Thomas Dunsford’s recital features shades of melancholy, nature’s wonders and the music of Bach. Their programme connects Dowland to McTell, Schubert to Lennon and McCartney, to create an enchanting survey of the songwriter’s art (25 January). Appl and pianist Simon Lepper perform Kurtág and Schubert songs from their album Lines of Life (20 June) Tickets for this concert will go on sale on 21 January. 

The RDMR contact for this client is Rebecca.