Page 147 - Winterreise Coverage Book, 2021 - 22

28 January 2022

I N : R E V I E W S

Schubert Wins Second Round After Streaming Glitches

by JULIE INGELFINGER

In the three years since baritone Benjamin Appl
made his first ever US tour, which included
performances of Schubert’s Die Winterreise (D911,
published as Opus 89), he has built an enthusiastic,
devoted following here. Indeed, Schubert suits
him, as his many astute, online comments attest.
The Boston Celebrity Series presented him via
livestream from Longy School of Music of Bard
College in Cambridge on the 26 . The concert will
th
remain available HERE through February 1 up to
st
7:00 P.M.

Schubert completed the heartrending 24-song
cycle set to verse by the German lyric
poet Wilhelm Müller in 1827, the year before his
too-early demise, and indeed he was working on
proofs of the last 12 songs within days of his death
in November, 1828. In the mid-late 20 century,
th
the late Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau personified the work along with pianist Gerald
Moore; and, surely Appl, that great baritone’s last student, performs the work in similar
style. Appl’s mellifluous baritone can seem conversational, but also possesses a fine
legato line and, in the low register, a deep resonance. And if pianist James Baillieu
didn’t always have Moore’s knack for differentiating the verses of the strophic songs, he
made an elegant partner and sometimes guide.

Appl’s articulate intelligence can be discovered in a European pre-concert video
[HERE], filmed in an alpine landscape advertising a November, 2021, Winterreise
performance at Salle Gaveau in Paris. In it Appl and Baillieu revealed their favorites of
this incantatory cycle—for Appl, Das Wirthaus (the Inn), for Baillieu, Der Lindenbaum.

The Boston Celebrity Series livestream glitched in fits and starts, prompting a vibrant
online chat: “There is a huge problem with the transmission;” “Yes it’s been spinning
for 20 minutes;” “Unwatchable” and “Dozens of stutters in the streaming.” Though the
Celebrity Series’s team valiantly tried to fix the problem in real time, alas, the issues
persisted throughout. Luckily, for the subsequent delayed broadcasts, the artists
remained focused, unaware.