The most promising of all today’s emerging song performers,” “A voice belonging to the last of the old and great masters of song,” possessing “an infinite range of nuances” and “precise attention to the text,” an artistry that critics describe as “unbearably moving”: all these epithets describe one man—the German singer Benjamin Appl, already familiar to Lithuanian audiences. On July 14, listeners at the Pažaislis Music Festival will have the opportunity to enjoy his talent at the Kaunas State Philharmonic.
Appl has been awarded the Gramophone Award for Young Artist of the Year, participated in the BBC New Generation Artists program, and was a member of the Wigmore Hall Emerging Artists and ECHO Rising Stars programs. He has performed in Europe’s greatest concert halls, including London’s Barbican Centre, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Paris and Cologne Philharmonic Halls, and the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg. He is one of the few classically trained singers who has not ventured onto the opera stage, but has instead chosen a career path as a singer in the art song genre. This is an exceptionally rare and unique case in the history of vocal art.The stage partner of this world-renowned singer, pianist Simon Lepper, also boasts an impressive biography. He is a highly regarded stage partner among singers. Critics have written that “S. Lepper, whose mastery is combined with a genuine sensitivity to the text and the voice, is a true rarity,” while *BBC Music Magazine* called the pianist “a sensational discovery.”

This exceptionally talented performer will invite listeners to a program titled “When the World Falls Silent.” The two-part concert will feature selected songs by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, romantic vocal miniatures by this renowned composer’s sister Fanny Hensel, and works by Hugo Wolf—arguably the most famous and beautiful master of the unrivaled Lied genre—seemingly chosen specifically for this program. The concert will culminate in Gustav Mahler’s dreamy vocal cycle “Rückert Lieder,” while the songs from the collection “A Shropshire Lad” (lit. A Lad from Shropshire). This program, prepared by talented performers, could be called the quintessence of the Lied genre, capable of revealing the full beauty and universality of German and British art songs even to those unfamiliar with this type of music.