For Dieter: Hommage à Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Benjamin Appl, baritone
James Baillieu, piano
Alpha Classics (2025) – CD-book format, 140 pages
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By Damián Autorino
Editor at Moto Perpetuo
More than an album, For Dieter is a personal and historical homage. In this project, Benjamin Appl pays tribute to his mentor Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau on the centenary of the legendary baritone’s birth — not just through song, but through memory, archive, and storytelling. Structured around the key stages of Fischer-Dieskau’s life, the program includes music by Schubert, Wolf, Korngold, and Eisler, as well as songs by his father Albert and brother Klaus Fischer-Dieskau, pieces sung during his time as a soldier and POW, and works composed especially for him.
The project is rooted in a personal connection. Benjamin Appl first encountered Fischer-Dieskau’s voice as a teenager and was instantly captivated. Years later, in 2009, he applied to a masterclass at the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg, which became the beginning of a profound relationship. From that moment until Fischer-Dieskau’s death in 2012, Appl worked with him privately, studying his entire repertoire during long, formative hours at his homes in Berlin and Berg. This album, conceived for the centenary of Fischer-Dieskau’s birth, is both a celebration and an act of remembrance — shaped by memory, admiration, and artistic inheritance.
Presented as a beautifully designed 140-page CD-book, the release features photographs, letters, and personal texts by Appl, offering a glimpse into Fischer-Dieskau not only as an artist but as a man. It stands in parallel to Appl’s reflective work in Lines of Life — his 2025 collaboration with György Kurtág — but the tone here is more intimate and grounded in personal history. Read our previous review of Lines of Life here.
Appl avoids imitation, instead offering a performance shaped by his own sensibilities — sensitive to text, deeply attentive to musical line, and imbued with a clear respect for his teacher’s ideals. James Baillieu matches this approach with playing that is both flexible and expressive, attuned to the emotional shifts of the album’s wide-ranging repertoire.
For Dieter is not only a tribute from student to teacher, but a musical document that speaks to legacy, influence, and the quiet ways in which one artist’s life can shape another.
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