{"id":75965,"date":"2022-07-13T12:13:43","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T16:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=75965"},"modified":"2022-07-15T12:05:04","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T16:05:04","slug":"scrutiny-toronto-summer-music-appl-rieger-recital-one-ages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2022\/07\/13\/scrutiny-toronto-summer-music-appl-rieger-recital-one-ages\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Toronto Summer Music: Appl & Rieger Recital One For the Ages"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"L-R:
L-R: Wolfram Rieger, piano; Benjamin Appl, baritone (Photo: Joseph So)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

David Lang: flower, forget me (Canadian Premiere); Schubert Die sch\u00f6ne M\u00fcllerin. Benjamin Appl, baritone; Wolfram Rieger, piano. Walter Hall, July 11, 2022.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

For Toronto art song lovers, Monday evening\u2019s Liederabend by German baritone Benjamin Appl and pianist Wolfram Rieger will stay in the memory bank for a very long time, as an early highlight of the 2022 Toronto Summer Musical Festival.<\/p>\n

The German-born, London-based baritone just turned 40 less than two weeks ago, still a relatively young age for a classical singer. Already he is widely regarded as one of the best recitalists in front of the public today, appearing in all the important concert halls and recital stages from Wigmore Hall to Concertgebouw to Carnegie Hall.<\/p>\n

Originally scheduled to appear in 2020 TSMF, but twice postponed due to COVID-19, Appl\u2019s Toronto debut last evening marked his return to Canada after a long absence. He had previously sung at the Banff Centre way back in 2012, near the very beginning of his career, in Britten\u2019s Owen Wingrave<\/em>, as well as the song cycle of Kindertotenlieder with Johannes Debus.<\/p>\n

The audience last evening was treated to Schubert\u2019s great song cycle Die sch\u00f6ne M\u00fcllerin<\/em>. To our surprise, there was an addition of an opening piece, the Canadian premiere of David Lang\u2019s flower, forget me<\/em>, lower-case intended, commissioned by the Konzerthaus Dortmund, and composed specifically for Benjamin Appl.<\/p>\n

The singer spoke to the audience about its genesis, detail notes of which by the composer can be found in the e-program. It\u2019s a work of reflections on the impermanence of life, as represented by the dying flower, a central metaphor in a great number of Schubert songs. Schubert used the poems by Wilhelm M\u00fcller for the M\u00fcllerin<\/em> cycle. Lang chose one poem not used by Schubert as the basis for flower, forget me<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As with any new work, it takes repeated hearings for a full appreciation. Hearing it for the first time, I find it tonal and generally accessible to the audience. I noticed a couple of what I feel are quirks \u2014 to my ears, the piano accompaniment as written doesn\u2019t seem to connect all that closely with the vocal line. Also, considering that it was composed with Appl\u2019s voice in mind, the low tessitura sits uncomfortably for the singer\u2019s high baritone, especially in the first half. Typically, a special commission represents a close collaboration between the composer and the artist, with the goal is to show the performer at his\/her best. So, what gives?<\/p>\n

I asked Appl about this in my interview with him the day after. He explained that the low tessitura was part of the dramatic expression.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about it, and it\u2019s something he (Lang) wanted to have it that low, to make it sound creepy and insecure, like someone who can\u2019t really reach or sing so much but coming from speaking,\u201d explains Appl. \u201cThe musical language is very different\u2026it\u2019s not really a piece of singing, but a sort of reciting and finding different colours, very different from Die sch\u00f6ne M\u00fcllerin.\u201d<\/p>\n

I hope to have the opportunity to hear it again.<\/p>\n

Without pause, Appl and Rieger went from the misery and despair of the Lang protagonist into the happy young man in \u201cDas Wandern.\u201d Unlike the TSMF opening at Koerner Hall, where the audience didn\u2019t have access to the song texts, here the translations were projected onto the wall above the stage.<\/p>\n

For the next hour, Appl and Rieger gave a virtual masterclass on this great song cycle. Appl\u2019s beautiful lyric baritone took the audience on an emotional journey of the young man infatuated with the miller\u2019s daughter. He sang with wide-ranging dynamics, from gorgeous mezza voce with moments of near whisper, to incisive, hall-filling fortissimos (\u201cDer J\u00e4ger\u201d), always attentive to textual nuances and never abandoning the beauty of tone. In the sad songs near the end of the cycle, I had a lump in my throat.<\/p>\n

A Liederabend is a collaboration, and Appl had the best collaborator in Wolfram Rieger, an elder statesman with impeccable credentials, one of the very best in the business. Exemplary was his total support of the singer, always in sync, never unnecessarily flashy, yet never shirking the (relatively few) moments Schubert allows the pianist to shine in this cycle. His playing was always at the service of the music, and it was awesome.<\/p>\n

After the new piece followed by the hour-long Die sch\u00f6ne M\u00fcllerin<\/em>, Appl still had the energy to give an encore, something one rarely encounters in recitals of complete song cycles. It was the quiet and reflective \u201cWanderers Nachtlied,\u201d a fitting piece to bring the recital to an end. The knowledgeable and well-behaved audience leapt to its collective feet. My European friends often say to me rather dismissively: \u201cArgh you North Americans, with your standing ovations\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

You know what? With Benjamin Appl and Wolfram Rieger, it was completely well deserved \u2014 Bravi tutti!<\/p>\n

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Monday evening\u2019s Liederabend by German baritone Benjamin Appl and pianist Wolfram Rieger will stay in the memory bank for a very long time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":75966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[39907,76,19,43,52,59,63],"tags":[40170,3356,40171],"yst_prominent_words":[7200,8318,15499,16084,13014,26297],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/07\/Appl-Rieger-REVIEW.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-jLf","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75965"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75965"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76001,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75965\/revisions\/76001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75965"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=75965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}