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Benjamin Appl has worked regularly with György Kurtág since 2018, when he first sang the Hungarian’s settings of Hölderlin. Since then the baritone and the composer have performed Schubert and Brahms together, and lieder by both composers are interleaved here with 13 of Kurtág’s own songs. The Hölderlin-Gesange form the centrepiece of the sequence; they are extraordinary, pared-down utterances, all but one of them relying on an unaccompanied voice, the other intensely framed by a trombone and tuba; Appl ensures that every chiselled phrase is freighted with meaning.
For Kurtág’s four Ulrike Schuster songs, Appl is partnered by Pierre-Laurent Aimard; James Baillieu accompanies him in most of the Schubert and the one-off Kurtág settings, while the great man himself, who will celebrate his 99th birthday next week, takes over as pianist for the last two numbers, Schubert’s Der Jüngling an der Quelle, and Brahms’s Sonntag. It’s a beautifully realised collection, not only evidence of Appl’s command of a wide-ranging repertoire, but also a wonderful tribute to one of the greatest composers and musicians of our time.
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