Benjamin Appl - Forbidden Fruit - BBC Music Magazine

Punning on the sound of his name, the baritone’s latest album harvests a rich crop of forbidden fruit in an exuberant exploration of desire and temptation, indulgence and transgression. The sheer breadth and ingenuity of the programming is, well… irresistible. Its execution is just as persuasive as singer and pianist navigate a slalom of styles that straddles Schubert and Gurney to Hahn and Jake Heggie – not forgetting the cabaret insouciance of Marlene Dietrich as channelled through Leonello Casucci’s ‘Just a Gigolo’.