Gratuitous Friday Benjamin Appl Sings Beethoven

Here is Benjamin Appl with Jonathan Ware, performing Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte at the Ravinia Festival (Chicago), Summer 2010. I fell in love with his recent Schubert recital from Schwarzenberg. His singing is so expressive that you don't need to see him to "get" what he's doing. But it doesn't hurt, either! Happy Friday!

Gratuitous Friday Special Edition – Die Ferne Geliebte is Closer Than You Think

You know how you hear a piece maybe one time—maybe it was a long time ago—and you never really think about it again? Then all of a sudden it's everywhere you look (listen). I finally downloaded Christian Gerhaher's recording of Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved) (mostly for the Berg and Schoenberg selections) and rediscovered the joys of this song cycle.

Beethoven's little work allegedly started the whole German song cycle craze. Most song cycles we know comprise many individual songs, and this one does, too, but Beethoven's prototype is a continuous stetting. Many recitalists will program just a few songs from a Schubert or Schumann or Wolf cycle, but I can't imagine anyone excerpting one song from this set. The final stanza of the opening song even comes back at the end—very cyclical.