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  42:3 (01-02 /2019)
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Sony 19075851622  



Code-barres / Barcode : 190758516226

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A glamorous image helps when promoting young female violinists, but presenting yourself as young and fresh doesn’t hurt a male singer, either. I mention this otherwise incidental quality while looking at the photo of the boyish German baritone Benjamin Appl and listening to his new album of Bach arias. Not to put too fine a point on it, did Appl’s “charming personality and great stage presence,” as Sony’s PR material puts it, get him as far as he’s gotten? I was mildly impressed by Appl’s two previous CDs for Sony, but there, and also here, his light, pleasant voice and superficial interpretations fall short of expectations.

Baritones typically gravitate to Bach’s solo cantatas for low voice, especially No. 82, Ich habe genug, and in Fanfare 41:4 I praised two releases that came out simultaneously from Michael Volle and Matthias Goerne. Both are Bach interpreters of moving depth; it was hard to choose which was better. For Appl, still in his 30s, to rise to their level of eloquence is unreasonable, perhaps, but I cannot foresee how he moves from the shallow, agreeable singing he does here to deeper waters. The potential simply doesn’t seem to be there. The accomplished period ensemble Concerto Köln plays very well, but the absence of a conductor was a mistake. Bach’s cantatas and Passions don’t play themselves, and the lack of a strong interpretative voice is felt in readings that generally trot along.

An aria like “Mache dich mein Herze rein” from the St. Matthew Passion deepens my bafflement. Appl’s voice is secure in the middle register but grows hoarse on low notes. His vowels can be gravelly if held long; there is no emotion behind the delivery of the words. In what way did this singer deserve to become a prestigious BBC New Generation Artist in 2016? (The rising Swiss baritone Andrè Schuen, whose impressive Schubert recital I review in this issue, possesses every quality Appl lacks.) It’s a given that our tastes in voices are highly individual, but I don’t even hear good technique here.
 

Thinking of positives besides the singer’s excellent diction and native-born pronunciation, I can point to the program, which features arias from some obscure Bach cantatas. Space forbids listing their titles in the headnote; it is easier to mention the few familiar numbers like “Bist du bei mir,” a signature encore of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in recital, “Jesu, joy of man’s desiring” from Cantata 47, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, and the recitative and two arias from the St. Matthew Passion. I’m sure other arias are also familiar to avid Bach cantata collectors. As Volle and Gorene did, instrumental sinfonias are interspersed among the vocal numbers.

I seem to be standing against the consensus opinions from highly placed sources who believe in Appl, so readers are advised to listen to online samples before purchasing this CD. Sony’s recorded sound is exemplary. I assume that texts and translations are included, but since I heard a streaming version, I can’t be sure.

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