A PERFORMANCE of Schubert’s great song cycle Winterreise is a major challenge for any singer and pianist, writes CLIVE WALKLEY. This dark, highly dramatic work requires immense stamina and concentration, especially when sung in its entirety without a break and from memory. Such was the task that the young baritone Benjamin Appl and his pianist Simon Lepper set themselves when they performed this wonderful cycle at Kendal's St Thomas’s Church.

Benjamin Appl first came to wide public attention when he won the Gramophone ‘Young Artists of the year’ award in 2016. He was a member of the BBC New Generation Artist scheme 2014-16 and since then his career has blossomed with frequent appearances on the concert platform and CD recordings. Simon Lepper has partnered many well-established artists in recitals and recordings and is official accompanist for the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. For this performance they formed a perfect partnership. With so much attention on the singer in a song cycle it is easy to overlook the role of the pianist whose accompaniment plays a major role in bringing the imagery of the text to life as well as supporting the singer. All this Simon Lepper did with complete mastery.

Winterreise is a bleak work describing the endless journey of the forlorn, rejected lover as he wearily tramps through a snowbound landscape. From the outset, Benjamin Appl commanded our attention and held it throughout the cycle of twenty-four songs. The texts, and translations, were very helpfully displayed on two large TV screens but Appl’s clear enunciation made this almost unnecessary. His commanding presence ensured a clear delivery; he moved effortlessly from song to song conveying each and every emotion with equal dramatic power. His tone is even throughout his range and this enabled him to bring an enormous range of colours to his performance.

Silence can sometimes speak louder than words, and at the end of the recital there was a gap of several seconds before the audience broke into enthusiastic applause, such was the power of the performance. This was certainly one of the highlights of LDSM’s first full week of concerts.

The number of young string quartets appearing on our concert platforms seems to mushroom year by year, the result perhaps of the numerous chamber music competitions open to young players nearing the end of their conservatoire training.