Lines of Life: Schubert & Kurtág

Benjamin Appl met the Hungarian composer György Kurtág in 2019 and has been working with him ever since. “He has influenced me both as a musician and as a person, perhaps more than anyone else,” says Appl. On this album, romantic German songs by Schubert and Brahms alternate with Kurtág’s vocal works, five of which are Welterstein recordings. Kurtág himself plays the piano for two songs by Schubert and Brahms, while the German baritone can rely on his long-time and trusted friends Pierre-Laurent Aimard and James Baillieu for the other works in the program, all under Kurtág’s artistic direction: “My goal with this album is to give the listener a glimpse into the infinite universe of György Kurtág, a shy procrastinator, a harsh self-critic, a hesitant explorer, an introverted questioner, an unpretentious intellectual, a brilliant composer, and an extraordinary person.”