Liverpool Philharmonic’s2024/25 season is focussing on the musical triumphs of both choral and solo singers, and the orchestra is delighted to welcome baritone Benjamin Appl as Artist in Residence from January 2025.
Baritone Benjamin Appl is celebrated for a voice that “belongs to the last of the old great masters of song” with “an almost infinite range of colours” (Suddeutsche Zeitung), and for performances “delivered with wit, intelligence and sophistication” (Gramophone magazine). A former BBC New Generation Artist (2014-16), Wigmore Hall Emerging Artist and ECHO Rising Star (2015-16), Benjamin was also awarded Gramophone Award Young Artist of the Year (2016). He signed exclusively to Sony Classical in the same year and has since begun a multi-album deal with Alpha Classics, releasing Winterreise in February 2021 to enormous critical acclaim and most recently in November, The Christmas Album.
Benjamin’s residency begins with his conducting debut in a performance of Handel’s Messiah. He is joined by soloists Anna Devin (soprano), Silke Gäng (mezzo-soprano), James Way (tenor) and Alex Rosen (bass), alongside the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir (11 January).
His residency also features a performance with Ensemble 10:10, Liverpool Philharmonic’s contemporary music ensemble, of Widmann’s Schumannliebe which is inspired by Schumann’s great song cycle Dichterliebe (5 March).
In May 2025 Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau would have been 100, and throughout 2025 Benjamin Appl celebrates his hero and mentor. Appl will release To Dieter: The Past and Future on 23 May 2025 on Alpha Classics to celebrate Fischer-Dieskau’s centenary. The album features songs by Fischer-Dieskau’s father and brother and his own poetry none of which have been recorded before, as well as music from every era of his life including music by Schubert, Brahms, Strauss, Britten, Barber, Mahler, Schumann, Wolf, Verdi, Bach, Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and more. The final concert of his residency in Liverpool will see Benjamin – with regular collaborator pianist James Baillieu who also features on the album – share memories and anecdotes about the iconic baritone (and his teacher) through his own personal diaries (18 June). He will also perform the same recital in London (2 March, Queen Elizabeth Hall) and Shropshire (7 March, St Chad’s Church, Shrewsbury).
Benjamin comments, ‘I am so thrilled to be Artist in Residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra this season. I have performed many times with the Orchestra and love their approach to making music – it is always a joy to work with them. I am so looking forward to making my conducting debut here and couldn’t think of a better partner to take this step with. It is also a joy to be celebrating the centenary of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who would have been 100 years old on May 28, 2025. He shone a light on German Lieder unlike almost any other artist and gave it new life in the modern day. I consider my years of collaboration with Dieter to be one of the greatest gifts of my professional life. I can’t wait to share memories I have been discovering from his diaries with audiences in Liverpool and beyond. I really hope you will join us.’
This season, Benjamin makes his South Korean debut at Seoul’s Lotte Hall in Schubert’s Winterreise, a piece he returns to throughout the season including in Budapest and at Muziekcentrum De Bijloke Gent in an arrangement by Wim ten Have with the Armida String Quartet. Other concert highlights include his debut collaboration with Les Grandes Voix and Hervé Niquet at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, performances of Mozart’s Requiem with Oslo Philharmonic and Klaus Mäkelä, his residency with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic including in his first conducting engagement of Handel’s Messiah as well as concerts with Ensemble 10:10, and solo recitals across Europe, the US and Australia. His 2024/25 operatic engagements see him onstage as Papageno Die Zauberfloete at Hamburg State Opera (house debut).