COMPANY: Alpha
ARTIST: Benjamin Appl
CATEGORY: CD
COMPOSER: Various Composers

Product: 3760014199127

Out of stock

Forbidden Fruit

Benjamin Appl (soloist), James Baillieu (piano)

Temptation, prohibition, good, evil... ‘how relevant are these in today's world?’ asks Benjamin Appl. With the complicity of pianist James Baillieu, we are taken on a musical arc from simple folk songs through to the great song

composers such as Schubert, Schumann and Wolf, along the way visiting the Impressionists Debussy and Poulenc, exploring ‘new objectivity’ with Weill and Eisler and enjoying compositions by Casucci, Heggie and others. The metaphor of forbidden fruit gives Benjamin and James a wide ran ge of possible interpretations. Whilst some of the song settings centre on sensuality, others focus on socially immoral topics such as incest or sensitive subjects such as abortion. The German baritone embodies each of these stories with a passion and dram atic sense that makes this album a kaleidoscopic and astonishing journey through time and space.

Ivor Gurney (1890-1937) , Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) , Kurt Weill (1900-1950) , Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) , Reynaldo Hahn (1875-1947) , Richard Strauss (1864-1949) , Roger Quilter (1877-1953) , Claude Debussy (1862-1918) , Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951) , Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) , Leonello Casucci (1885-1975) , Robert Schumann (1810-1856) a.o.

Ivor Gurney: The Apple Orchard
+Hugo Wolff: Ganymed; An die Gliebte; Und willst du deinen Liebsten sterben lassen
+Kurt Weill: Youkali
+Francis Poulenc: L'Offrande; Couplets Bachiques; Le Serpent
+Reynaldo Hahn: A Chloris
+Richard Strauss: Das Rosenband
+Roger Quilter: Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal
+Claude Debussy: La Chevelure
+Arnold Schönberg: Arie aus dem Spiegel von Arcadien
+Edvard Grieg: To a Devil
+Leonello Casucci: Just a Gigolo
+Robert Schumann: Lorelei; Frühlingsfahrt; Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß
+Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel: Die Nonne
+Lothar Brühne: Kann den Liebe Sünde sein
+Jake Heggie: The Snake
+Franz Schubert: Heidenröslein; Gretchen am Spinnrade
+Hanns Eisler: Ballade vom Paragraphen 2018
+Gustav Mahler: Urlicht
+Gabriel Faure: In paradisum

September 2023

Forbidden, yet seldom forbidding, Appl’s exquisitely cultivated fruits are ripe for plucking, and deserve to be consumed with unalloyed relish!

September 2023

It works because of the intimacy of the performers (in a warmly confiding acoustic) and the palpable sense that the pair are in sync...It’s all delivered with wit, intelligence and sophistication, and the thematic joins don’t feel forced despite the breadth of the material.