Page 44 - Winterreise Coverage Book, 2021 - 22

The baritone Benjamin Appl’s hat trick of Schubert recitals at the Park Avenue
Armory in 2019 was one of the most promising New York debuts in recent years. He
hasn’t been back since — his next engagement, at Carnegie Hall, was a pandemic
casualty — but in the meantime, he has recorded one of those Armory programs: the
melancholy song cycle “Winterreise.”

As in New York, the pianist is James Baillieu, who is often more deferential and
measured than showy, even in the galloping “Die Post.” Yet he is also capable of quiet
tension, as in “Die Krähe,” and compliments the wide emotional world within the
whispers of Appl’s approach. Their “Gute Nacht” has the softness of fresh snow, but
also its dangerous chill. That’s the key to Schubert’s sadly beautiful music, and the
reason this “Frühlingstraum” is at once gorgeous and shattering.

Appl handles the cycle’s sharp turns with affecting control, a storyteller’s thrall and,
above all, trust in the text. He relishes the mercurial serenity of “Der Lindenbaum”
and the major-key ending of the furious “Rückblick.” In “Die Wetterfahne,” he is
unafraid of a little ugliness, which works until a barking climax.

Throughout — culminating in a frighteningly straightforward “Der Leiermann” —
you can hear the actorly qualities that gave another Schubert cycle Appl sang at the
armory, “Die Schöne Müllerin,” the shape of a true monodrama. That is an even
better fit for him; I hope he records it next. JOSHUA BARONE

‘Uncovered,’ Vol. 2: Florence B. Price

Catalyst Quartet; Michelle Cann, piano (Azica)