Benjamin Appl wins Gramophone Magazine's "Young Artist of the Year" award

Barihunk Benjamin Appl has won Gramophone Magazine's coveted "Young Artist of the Year" award. James Jolly of Gramophone wrote the following in his nomination for Appl's award:

For the past few years, British music-lovers have been aware of a major new singing talent in their midst, Benjamin Appl. Listeners to BBC Radio 3 have had a particularly privileged ring-side seat as this young German baritone was a New Generation Artist for the class of 2014-16; but he’s an increasingly visible figure on the concert scene, and once seen – tall, blond, handsome and with a commanding stage presence – he’s not easily forgotten. The last private pupil of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (there’s a YouTube clip of the two baritones, nearly a half century apart in age, working on Lieder together), Appl has been named an ECHO Rising Star and, earlier this year, he signed a contract with Sony Classical, the first fruits of which will appear early next year.

Benjamin Appl accepting his Grammophone award (Photo: Benjamin Ealovega)

Appl has appeared on a number of recordings, often alongside other singers – in the Mendelssohn song series with the pianist Malcolm Martineau for Champs Hill or in songs by Schumann alongside Ann Murray for Linn (‘With clear, incisive diction, he characterises vividly in the narrative “Ballade des Harfners” and catches both the Lear-like weariness of soul and the accusatory bitterness of “Wer sich der Einsamkeit ergibt”, wrote Richard Wigmore in March last year). But 2016 saw the appearance of his first two solo recordings.

Champs Hill’s May release, entitled ‘Stunden, Tage, Ewigkeiten’, linked Schumann’s song-cycle Dichterliebe with other songs to words by Heine. As Richard Fairman wrote, ‘Appl has a baritone voice with its own character and a natural appreciation of the essentials of singing Lieder’. Barely a month passed before his next disc, a Wigmore Hall Live recording – with Graham Johnson at the piano (Appl has worked with just about every major accompanist on the British scene) – of Lieder by Schubert. Hugo Shirley, who reviewed it, felt a marked advance even on that first disc: ‘His instinctive feel for these songs is immediately striking and manifests itself in the sort of artlessness that distinguishes the finest Lieder singers: a lack of tension, an easy relationship with the poetry, a confidence in the words and Schubert’s melodies to communicate with nothing but the gentlest helping interpretative hand.’

This young singer has huge potential and we look forward to following the exciting journey that lies ahead. As Richard Fairman concluded, in his May review: ‘Sample his debut solo disc and you will hear the current front-runner in the next generation of Lieder singers.’

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Simon Keenlyside

Simon Keenlyside

On August 3rd, we're celebrating the 55th birthday of the seemingly ageless Simon Keenlyside, who continues to thrill audiences 27 years after his professional debut. 

Keenlyside began his singing career as a chorister at St John’s College, Cambridge. A keen ecologist, he returned to Cambridge to read Zoology, singing on a choral scholarship, and went on to study singing with John Cameron at the Royal Northern College of Music.

His career has taken him to the world’s major opera houses, singing repertory including Oreste in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride, Figaro in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, Rigoletto, Hamlet, Ford in Verdi's Falstaff) Pelléas and Billy Budd.

A lover of German Lieder, Keenlyside also performs widely in recital, including regular appearances at London’s Wigmore Hall. His discography includes CDs of opera, operetta duets and Lieder and songs by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Richard Strauss and Vaughan Williams. Many of his performances with The Royal Opera are available on DVD.

Simon Keenlyside sings Richard Strauss' Cäcilie:

He can next be seen on August 20th at the Edinburgh International Festival with accompanist Malcolm Martineau. The program includes Butterworth's A Shropshire Lad, a touching evocation of a vanishing pastoral England, and Vaughan Williams's Songs of Travel, which explore the innermost thoughts and longings for home of soldiers on the front line. The recital also includes works by Ireland, Somervell, Eisler, Gurney, Finzi, Schumann and Wolf. The concert will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 at 11am GMT/4am EST. 

Keenlyside lives on a farm in West Wales with his wife, Royal Ballet Principal Zenaida Yanowsky, and their children. His interests outside opera include planting trees, reading poetry and listening to a wide range of music including flamenco.

Baritones dominate Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition

Johnny Herford (L) and Aarne Pelkonen (R)

As we prepare to watch the finals of the Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition, we're amazed at the consistently great baritone voices on the world scene. Five of the eleven singers in the September 1st finals are baritones. They include Johnny Herford, Morgan Pearse, Aarne Pelkonen, Ross Ramgobin and Gavan Ring. Pearse has appeared on this site a few times.

The Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition has been around for ten years and attracts some of the top young vocal and piano talent in the world. Singers compete in tandem with an accompanist. This Competition recognizes the song tradition as a whole and requires contestants to perform in at least three languages. At the same time it honors the Lied’s place at the heart of the song repertoire and celebrates the Shakespearean stature of Schubert in the genre.

Dominik Köninger's thrilling 2011 winning set at the Wigmore/Kohn Competition:

The semi-final round will be held from 3-7:30 PM on September 1 and the final round and award ceremony will begin at 6 PM on September 3 with a dinner break. Tickets are available online.

Fans of great baritones may want to hang around until September 7 when Simon Keenlyside and Bryn Terfel join accompanist Malcolm Martineau for an evening of Schumann and Schubert at Wigmore Hall. Tickets are available online.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SIMON KEENLYSIDE!

THE SEEMINGLY AGELESS SIMON KEENLYSIDE

Amazingly, Simon Keenlyside is celebrating his 52nd birthday today, which should give hope to all middle-aged men. He remains as sexy as ever and continues to deliver dramatically intense performances with stunning vocalism.

He is currently singing opposite fellow barihunk Erwin Schrott in Salzburg's "Le nozze di Figaro." He then heads to the Edinburgh International Festival for a concert with pianist Malcolm Martineau. They will be performing works by Mahler, Strauss and Schubert alongside more intimate songs by Duparc and Debussy. For those who can't attend, the concert will be broadcast on August 31st as BBC Radio 3's Lunchtime Concert.

Simon Keenlyside sings Gabriel Fauré's  "En sourdine":

 

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Reader Submission: Thomas Oliemans

Thomas Oliemans

Our "reader submissions" feature has been particularly popular with readers from Germany, the Netherlands and France. Our latest submission is the 34-year-old Dutch barihunk Thomas Oliemans, who we mentioned yesterday is about to open as Marcello in Puccini's "La Boheme" with the Nationale Reisoper.

His career has taken off in the last five years, with debuts at Salzburg in Schreker's "Die Gezeichneten," Papageno in Mozart´s "Die Zauberflöte" with the Opera of Nantes and Angers, and Guglielmo in Mozart's "Cosi fan Tutte" in Geneva. Recent engagements have included Figaro in Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" at the Scottish Opera, Maximilan in Bernstein's "Candide" at the Vlaamse Opera, Harlequin in Richard Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos" at the Opera National du Rhin in Strasbourg and Tarquinius in Britten's "Rape of Lucretia" at the Vlaamse Opera.

Oliemans is increasingly in demand as a recording artist. He recorded songs by Francis Poulenc and Gabriel Fauré with pianist Malcolm Martineau, Schubert’s Winterreise and Schwanengesang, as well as songs by Frank Martin.

Here is Oliemans with pianist Malcolm Martineau recording Schuberts "Schwanengesang" in London last year. 



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