German-born baritone
Benjamin Appl studied with the legendary
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, whose voice his own resembles on the surface. But then he moved to England and has stayed on there.
Heimat (Homeland) is not just an exploration of that German concept, but a personal statement and even a bit of an autobiography, with notes from the artist himself (find these if you listen via download or stream) explaining the resonances of each individual song. This kind of personal connection is what classical music in general needs right now, and all the more so in the rather closed tradition of the German Lied. The program is divided into sections marked Prologue, Roots, Locations, People, On the Road, Yearning, Without Frontiers, and Epilogue.
Appl begins with songs that refer back to his own childhood (including the ultra-familiar
Brahms Wiegenlied, Op. 49, No. 4 ("Brahms' Lullaby"), which hasn't had such a sense of immediacy for a long time. Under On the Road comes a remarkable inclusion, Ich weiß bestimmt, ich werd' dich wiedersehen (I am certain I'll see you again) of
Adolf Strauss, a Weimar-era pop songwriter who died in the Nazi concentration camps. Sample this to feel how
Appl infuses the music with personal feeling even as his voice sticks within some rather fixed boundaries. He has stretched himself with British song, which takes up the last third of the program (cleverly introduced by
Poulenc's setting of
Apollinaire's Hyde Park). In the abstract, you might prefer homegrown singers in the pieces by
Britten,
Warlock, and
Vaughan Williams heard here, but by this time you're hooked into
Appl's odyssey. With sensitive interaction with accompanist
James Baillieu,
Appl scores an impressive Sony debut.