BENJAMIN APPL Heimat
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BENJAMIN APPL Heimat JAMES BAILLIEU PIANO Heimat PROLOG PROLOGUE GRENZENLOS WITHOUT FRONTIERS 1. Franz Schubert Seligkeit D 433 17. Francis Poulenc Hyde Park FP127/2 (Ludwig Hölty) 1:52 (Guillaume Apollinaire) 0:48 18. Benjamin Britten Greensleeves WURZELN ROOTS (traditional) 2:05 2. Max Reger Des Kindes Gebet op. 76/22 19. Ralph Vaughan Williams Silent Noon (from ‘The House of Life’) (Ludwig Rafael) 1:38 (Dante Gabriel Rossetti) 4:00 3. Hugo Wolf Er ist’s 20. Sir Henry Bishop Home, sweet home (Eduard Mörike) 1:23 (John Howard Payne) 3:11 4. Johannes Brahms Wiegenlied op. 49/4 21. Peter Warlock My own country (Volkslied) 1:55 (Hilaire Belloc) 2:17 22. Peter Warlock The Bachelor RÄUME LOCATIONS (Anonymous) 0:50 5. Franz Schubert Der Einsame D 800 23. John Ireland If there were dreams to sell (Karl Lappe) 4:19 (Thomas Lovell Beddoes) 2:24 6. Johannes Brahms Mondnacht WoO 21 (Joseph von Eichendorff) 2:51 EPILOG EPILOGUE 7. Franz Schreker Waldeinsamkeit 24. Edvard Grieg An das Vaterland op. 58/2 (Jens Peter Jacobsen / Robert Franz Arnold) 3:06 (John Paulsen) 1:55 25. Edvard Grieg Ein Traum op. 48/6 MENSCHEN PEOPLE (Friedrich Martin von Bodenstedt) 2:30 8. Johannes Brahms Mein Mädel hat einen Rosenmund (Volkslied) 1:57 Total time: 66:54 9. Hugo Wolf Verschwiegene Liebe (Joseph von Eichendorff) 2:23 10. Richard Strauss Allerseelen op. 10/8 BENJAMIN APPL (Hermann von Gilm zu Rosenegg) 3:08 Bariton/baritone 11. Franz Schubert Nachtstück D 672 (Johann Mayrhofer) 6:02 JAMES BAILLIEU UNTERWEGS ON THE ROAD Piano 12. Franz Schubert Drang in die Ferne D 770 (Carl Gottfried Ritter von Leitner) 3:34 13. Franz Schubert Der Wanderer an den Mond D 870 (Johann Gabriel Seidl) 2:17 14. Adolf Strauss Ich weiß bestimmt, ich werd’ dich wiedersehen (Ludwig Hift) 3:51 SEHNSUCHT YEARNING 15. Franz Schubert Das Heimweh D 456 (Theodor Hell) 1:22 16. Franz Schubert Der Wanderer D 489 (Georg Philipp Schmidt von Lübeck) 5:16 www.benjaminappl.com www.james-baillieu.com Recording: October 28-31 2016 & January 20 2017, Studio 1 Bayerischer Rundfunk, Germany · Recording Producer: Torsten Schreier · Recording Engineer: Peter Urban · Executive Producer: Falk Häfner (BR) Photos: Lars Borges, Studio Borges · Artwork: [ec:ko] communications · P & C 2017 Sony Music Entertainment Germany GmbH ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS DANKSAGUNG For me personally Heimat means motivation, inspiration, love, orientation, safety and, Heimat – für mich ganz persönlich – ist Motivation, Inspiration, Liebe, Orientierung und ultimately also support. Therefore I am grateful to the many people who are behind Sicherheit, letzten Endes auch Unterstützung. Daher bin ich vielen Menschen sehr this project and also behind me personally: the wonderful James Baillieu; the team at dankbar, die hinter diesem Projekt und meiner Person stehen: Dem wundervollen Bavarian Radio; recording producer Torsten Schreier; Michael Brüggemann and all at James Baillieu, dem Team des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Tonmeister Torsten Schreier Sony Classical who are responsible for this recording; Lars Borges for the photographs; sowie Michael Brüggemann und den Verantwortlichen von Sony Classical für die Neil MacGregor and Christoph Vratz for all of the texts; my managers Stefania Almansi vorliegende Produktion, Lars Borges für die Fotos, Neil MacGregor und Christoph and Helge Augstein; and PS Music Berlin. I would also like to thank my family, friends, Vratz für die Texte, meinen Managern Stefania Almansi und Helge Augstein sowie especially Holger and Rouwen, M. for everything, and all of those who both in the PS Music Berlin. Großer Dank geht natürlich an meine Familie und Freunde, speziell past and in the future were and will continue to be a part of my own Heimat. an Holger und Rouwen, an M. für Alles, sowie an alle diejenigen, die bisher und zukünftig für mich Heimat waren und sein werden. Benjamin Appl Translation by Texthouse Benjamin Appl BENJAMIN APPL Arriving well after midnight on 19th September 2010 in London with just three suitcases, I felt not only a sense of freedom but also a sense of uncertainty. I was coming to further my studies, which meant shifting the centre of my life to England. I had never seen the city before and had to find my way around that same night and locate my new home. I can still remember my thoughts and feelings very clearly: was it the right decision to abandon all that was familiar to me? Would I be happy there? What sort of people would I meet? It was a step that involved lots of challenges but which also brought with it some great opportunities to discover new things, to overcome my fear of the new and to open myself up to new experiences. Another aspect to consider: in 2014 I lost two of my grandparents who had been an integral part of my life since my birth and to whom I had been extremely close. For me, they formed a part of my Heimat. To sing Schubert’s Nachtstück and Strauss’s Allerseelen immediately after their death was incredibly hard from an emotional point of view, but also something I shall never forget. In performing these songs and in experiencing their words and music at first hand, I realised that there is a further reason why it is so infinitely painful: with the death of a loved one, you lose a big part of your own inner sense of security, to say nothing of your identity and ultimately of the Heimat that you carry around within you. Heimat: is it a concept? A feeling? Or something more than this? On the strength of various experiences, each of us knows the sense of feeling safe, a sensation we owe to a place, a situation or to certain individuals. Sometimes, however, we also feel hemmed in or we experience prejudice or pain. For centuries poets and composers have explored this theme. It is more relevant and urgent now more than ever, now that many people are losing their homeland or else they are having to give it up. Heimat is something that really moves people. The present songs are all part of my journey through life: texts that comfort us, texts that bring joy, texts that awaken memories, but also songs that tell of new departures and discoveries and which not only accompany us on our journey but prepare the way for moments of familiarity and security. Others reflect moments when a part of our homeland was lost. It is my wish for this music to take you on this journey, with its various aspects of Heimat, of seeking, of questions about identity, of homesickness and longing, of prejudices and the fear of change, but also of proximity and the sense of feeling safe. Translation by Texthouse BENJAMIN APPL Neil MacGregor ‘Heimat’ Als ich am 19.09.2010 mit drei Koffern nach Mitternacht in London ankam, fühlte This is a song cycle for the twenty-first century, crafted out of works by the greatest ich Freiheit, aber auch Unsicherheit. Ich kam, um meinen Lebensmittelpunkt nach composers of the nineteenth and twentieth. It is at one level an anthology of German Lieder and English songs, at another an intensely personal narrative. Like many song England zu verlegen und dort ein Aufbaustudium zu absolvieren. Ohne die Stadt cycles, it tells the story of a young man, whom we follow from home and childhood in zuvor gesehen zu haben, musste ich mich in dieser Nacht zurechtfinden und mein Germany, on his journey to new lands and — far more important — to new emotions. neues Zuhause ausfindig machen. Ich erinnere mich noch gut an meine Gedanken But this is a story of a young man of our time, the tale of many young Europeans und Gefühle: War es die richtige Entscheidung, das Bekannte zu verlassen? Werde today, and in large measure of Benjamin Appl himself. Where the Romantic era ich mich dort wohlfühlen? Welche Menschen werde ich treffen? Ein Schritt voller presents the Wanderer eternally sighing for the home he has lost, the hero of this song cycle eventually finds a second home, which he can love with equal intensity, and Herausforderungen, aber auch großen Chancen, Neues zu entdecken, die Angst vor he can sing of that new love in the language of the country. Neuem zu überwinden, sich zu öffnen. This is in effect a carefully constructed, movingly performed Anglo-German Ein anderer Aspekt: 2014 verlor ich zwei meiner Großeltern, die mich seit meiner love story. Chosen by Appl, songs in both languages track his own trajectory. Two Geburt intensiv begleitet hatten, denen ich extrem nahe war, die für mich ein Stück lullabies evoke the world of his childhood near Regensburg, the historic Free City of the Holy Roman Empire near the Danube: he remembers singing Guten Abend, gut Heimat bildeten. Das Singen von Schuberts Nachtstück sowie Strauss’ Allerseelen Nacht with his mother, while Reger, the composer of the hauntingly simple Des Kindes direkt nach deren Tod waren emotional unbeschreiblich schwierige, unvergessliche Gebet, lived in the same part of Bavaria. And the narrative arc ends with his settling in Augenblicke. Beim Musizieren und dem Erleben von Musik und Text wurde mir bewusst, England, which he can now also sing of as My Own Country, where he was hailed as dass es einen weiteren Grund gibt, warum es so unendlich schmerzt: Mit dem Tod one of the most promising of the BBC’s New Generation singers, and where he today eines geliebten Menschen verliert man ein erhebliches Stück Geborgenheit, Identität enjoys great public acclaim. The journeys in these songs are those we all dream of making, and on which und letztendlich Heimat in sich selbst. we all need to set out.