The baritone Benjamin Appl has recorded an album for Alpha that combines the music of György Kurtág with that of Franz Schubert. 'Lines of Life: Schubert & Kurtág' is the result of a long process that started with Kurtág choosing the singer for this unique project and working with him on the music, and finally producing the recording - and even playing the piano for Appl in two songs that close the programme.

The 99-year-old composer has said of the collaboration that 'Benjamin first came to me for the Hölderlin-Gesänge in 2018, and then we started working on other songs. On this recording you can hear everything that a solo baritone or a baritone and piano can perform. We chose most of Schubert's songs and the Sonntag by Brahms because of my memories of [my late wife] Márta.'

James Jolly met up with Benjamin Appl – a former Gramophone Young Artist of the Year – to talk about the album, but also about another recording that's on the horizon, his tribute to his teacher, and one of the great Lieder singers of the post-war period, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the 100th anniversary of whose birth falls in May.

This Gramophone Podcast is given in association with Wigmore Hall, where over coming days you can see musicians including Gramophone Award-winners Mauro Peter who is joined by Louise Alder and Joseph Middleton for Wolf’s Italian Songbook, Steven Osborne, Timothy Ridout, Mahan Esfahani, Fatma Said and Malcolm Martineau.

To hear other Gramophone podcasts, or to subscribe for free to new editions, search for 'Gramophone' in your Podcast App of choice, or visit Gramophone's page on Apple or Spotify.

You can listen to Benjamin Appl's new Alpha album 'Lines of Life: Schubert & Kurtág' via Presto Classical, below.