Benjamin Appl comes home for Christmas with festive album

German baritone Benjamin Appl has returned to his hometown of Regensburg in Germany to record a Christmas album celebrating his roots. In The Christmas Album, Appl performs with popular German children’s choir Regensburger Domspatzen, which he sang in with his two brothers as a child.

As well as reuniting with his former choir, Appl also joins forces with the Munich Radio Orchestra conducted by Florian Helgath to perform a programme of Bach Chorales and popular carols. The final track of the album, Franz Xaver Gruber’s Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht, sees Appl accompanied by his mother, Edeltraud Appl, on the guitar.

Appl said: ‘Christmas evokes intense memories and emotions in all of us. It takes us back to our childhood: that sense of magic and excitement, so often reawakened by the sight of a traditional Nativity scene, or the lights on a Christmas tree, or by hearing Christmas carols. It was with all these images in mind that I returned to my hometown to record this album with “my” boys’ choir. When, after more than twenty years, I found myself back among the choristers and heard the familiar sound, the emotion was very intense.’

He added: ‘This album is an attempt to capture the magic of Christmas with music that is familiar to us, and to relive the wonder of childhood Christmases. For me, singing together and listening to Christmas carols is the most beautiful way to experience the joys of Yuletide.’

Appl’s Christmas album is a moment of calm ahead of a busy 2025. Alongside the February release of Lines of Life, a new collaboration with György Kurtág, Appl celebrates the centenary of Dieter Fischer-Dieskau with an album and series of live concerts with pianist James Baillieu and makes his conducting debut with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in January.