Among the wealth of great music by female composers that has finally reclaimed the world's stages in recent years, the works of Cologne-born Maria Herz, who died in American exile, stand out as rare treasures. The internationally rising Canadian pianist Aude St-Pierre earns great acclaim with her new GENUIN album, which brings the piano music of this exceptional composer to light. Herz's development from her early Chopin variations and the "Landlers Op. 2" to her Sonata in F minor is breathtaking, hinting at an unrealized future silenced too soon. St-Pierre's piano playing illuminates the music of the Fin de Siecle era in all it's vivid colors!

Two female musicians leave their home countries to establish themselves in foreign lands and take a musical retrospect. Katja Zakotnik and Naila Alvarenga Lahmann present music from Slovenia, Brazil and Germany on their new GENUIN CD. We embark with them on a highly emotional journey, traversing all the mountains and valleys that the multifaceted concept of"home" entails. We encounter well-known composers such as Johannes Brahms and Heitor Villa-Lobos and new names such as Blaž Pucihar and André Mehmari. The compositions of the young Slovenian Urška Orešic (world premiere recording of her"Little Diamonds") and the Brazilian Chiquinha Gonzaga add variety to the CD and tempt us to look with interest at the feminine side of these countries' musical creations.

The city of Petersburg has a complex history, merging diverse cultural influences into a distinct profile. The forces generated amid the constant interplay of repression and the yearning for freedom find expression in experimentation. This led the Günter-Kim duo to explore the cosmopolitan city in search of traces. In the process, the cello-piano duo has discovered various compositions related to Dmitri Shostakovich: Boris Goltz, Galina Ustvolskaya, Boris Arapov… and, as a world premiere recording, Leonid Gorokhov. The duo's arrangements of Shostakovich's Spanish and Jewish songs symbolize a thoughtful approach to foreign cultures. This stands in stark contrast to the current somber reality: Petersburg, once the gateway to Europe, is on the brink of closing itself off.

Where do piano music and the noblest of all diamonds meet? Nobility, technical finesse, and the beauty of reflection can only explain a part of our fascination for diamonds - there remains a mystery, an inexplicable depth. It's the same with the musical works that pianist Johannes Obermeier has brought together in his GENUIN album "Brilliants". Schumann's radiant "Carnaval", Ravel's sparkling "Valses nobles et sentimentales", Chopin's and Godowsky's dazzling etudes, and Obermeier's own variations on a Schumann motif are mirrors and reflections of each other. This CD production is part of the Carl Bechstein Special Prize of the ARD Music Competition 2022 - one of numerous awards the young exceptional musician has earned in the past two years. A promising debut album!

The Kolner Vokalsolisten are a six-voice vocal ensemble dedicated primarily to interpreting contemporary music. On their new GENUIN CD, however, they juxtapose contemporary music with works from the 16th and 19th centuries and sing compositions based on the four elements. Not only does Renaissance meet Romanticism on this CD, but several world premieres by Stefan Heucke, Laura Marconi, and Michael Ostrzyga – works written especially for the slender and superbly blending voices of the vocal soloists – are featured as well. Fire, water, earth, air: virtuosic, sonorous, ethereal, and grounded – a truly extraordinary musical journey!

The GENUIN debut album of Moscow-born and Hamburg-based pianist Elizaveta Don brings together "Preludes" by three great composers: Claude Debussy, Dmitri Shostakovich, and the lesser-known yet equally significant works by Frank Martin. Elizaveta Don's words about the "Preludes" of the great Swiss composer also apply to the tiny treasures of the other two composers: they are "a journey through uncertainty and hope, reality and surrealism, irony and tragedies." What a stroke of luck for us: We get to embark on nearly forty of these journeys, guided by Elizaveta Don, ensuring the highest musical experience possible!

This year, GENUIN and the German Music Council, together with Deutschlandfunk Kultur, are once again presenting a prizewinner of the German Music Competition: clarinetist Lyuta Kobayashi. Not only has he been successful in this competition, he has already won several prizes despite his young age. In his program of works by Johannes Brahms, Jörg Widmann, Robert Schumann, and the klezmer clarinetist Helmut Eisel, he will be accompanied by the no less talented pianist Julian Emanuel Becker, who this year was the youngest participant to win a prize at the 32nd St. Albans International Organ Competition (UK).

Metamorphoses: this is what Duo Amabile is in search of. In their concept album, Paula Breland, clarinet, and Anna-Katharina Schau, accordion, zoom into the processes of upheaval and new beginnings to offer their listeners transgressive listening experiences and to immerse themselves in a common"liminal moment". Featuring top-notch musical performances, this album combines works composed especially for the duo by René Kuwan, Michaela Rea Catranis and Marín Donoso Vera together with thematically appropriate movements from Edward Elgar's famous Enigma Variations. All the new works are presented here in world premiere recordings!

The Philharmonie Sudwestfalen and it's chief conductor, Nabil Shehata, offer us repertoire rarities of the highest artistic quality and one of the milestones of the repertoire. On the orchestra's second recording with GENUIN, the agile North Rhine-Westphalian state orchestra presents works by Antonin Dvorak on a double CD. In addition to the "Symphony From the New World", the album includes the early, lush 3rd Symphony of the Bohemian master and two of his late symphonic poems: "The Noon Witch" and "The Water Goblin". A fascinating cross-section of Dvorak's work, from his Richard Wagner-influenced beginnings to maturity.

The German Music Competition has helped many great musicians launch their careers: German violinist Anne Luisa Kramb won the competition in 2022 and is now releasing the debut CD accompanying her victory on GENUIN. This release offers a cross-section of her work and documents the high musical skill of the young musician. The track list includes a solo sonata by Paul Hindemith, Ludwig van Beethoven's famous "Spring Sonata," Henryk Wieniawski's devilishly heavy and melodic "Faust Fantasy" after Gounod, and a waltz sequence from "Der Rosenkavalier", ravishingly arranged by Czech violinist Váša Príhoda. The equal piano partner of Anne Luisa Kramb, who has won several international awards, is Jeonghwan Kim.

The internationally renowned pianist Caroline Fischer has put together an evocative holiday gift with her new GENUIN CD. For the recording, she sought out old and new Christmas melodies, well-known and unknown, and combined them to form a harmonious whole. Included are treasures such as Otto von Walden’s tender fantasy on “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” and Gustav Lange’s enchanting version of “Silent Night” – some of these windfalls have been recorded on CD for the first time. Thoughtfully curated and recorded to the highest standard, the only thing really missing is the wrapping paper!

From the Earth to the stars, from darkness to light: the young, award-winning pianist Andrey Denisenko, acclaimed in Germany and Russia, has compiled significant works of literature for his new GENUIN CD. The creators of Robert Schumann's "Kreisleriana", Johannes Brahms' late Fantasies, and the master Johann Sebastian Bach's magnificent "Chaconne" for the violin (arranged by Brahms) transformed suffering and deprivation into musical gems. These works demand not only a technically outstanding pianist but also an artist who thinks and breathes in grand structures. Andrey Denisenko possesses both qualities and plays these masterpieces with verve and excellent clarity.

From the first notes, the snowy steps of "Fremd bin ich eingezogen" (As a stranger I arrived), the new recording of Schubert's "Winterreise" by the GewandhausChor makes one sit up and take notice: Choirmaster Gregor Meyer has arranged one of the most paramount lieder cycles for his "instrument", the choir, and makes virtuosic use of the possibilities offered by the ensemble's polyphony and sonority. Meyer has split the original piano part between two accordions, played here by Heidi and Uwe Steger. Their instruments are astonishingly close to the human voice, breathing, shouting, whispering, and singing. Tobias Berndt, an accomplished lied singer, takes on the baritone solo part in this recording with the choir of one of the most renowned concert halls.

On her 8th GENUIN CD, the Japanese flutist Atsuko Koga once again proves her incredible musicality and versatility. This time, she presents works for flute, violin, and cello with the internationally award-winning violinist Riyo Uemura and the world-renowned cellist Georgiy Lomakov. The high-caliber trio performs music from the past four centuries, ranging from examples of Classical works by Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven to Claude Debussy's delicate flourishes, Heitor Villa-Lobos' and Eugène Bozza's moderate modernism, and Yassen Vodenitcharov's miniatures inspired by Classical Antiquity in a world premiere recording.

Desire, adventure, loneliness, and darkness: the night holds all this for the insightful pianist Eva Barta. On her new GENUIN CD, she has compiled a program of intimate and poetic literature, ranging from well-known and popular pieces such as Debussy's "Clair de Lune" and Rachmaninoff's "Preludes" to exciting discoveries by Weill and Bartók and lieder by Schonberg and Sibelius. Eva Barta herself has transcribed the selected art songs for piano and incorporates her extensive experience in lied interpretation into these expressive, differentiated first recordings.

Finally, a Shostakovich CD by the Asasello-Quartett! The internationally successful and award-winning ensemble has long been intensively engaged with the 15 works of the great Russian composer and is now embarking on a complete recording. The new GENUIN release of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Quartets Nos. 7 - 13 now kicks off the series. According to the booklet for the production, “Love, death and dearest people – these are the themes of the works heard on this double CD.” And the Asasello-Quartett spans the breadth of interpretation just as broadly as the variety of themes outlined here: with poignancy, elegance, and virtuosity – a whole world of its own!

Just in time for the 80th birthday of Christian Ridil, GENUIN is releasing a second CD of chamber music works by the composer whom the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung acclaimed as "contemporary, rhythmically refined, perfect in craftsmanship and form"! Only first recordings are compiled here. We hear the Eliot Quartett, members of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and further excellent musicians. The diverse instrumentation of the works and their unique tonal languages present a portrait of a composer who is firmly rooted in tradition and yet always seeks new paths, be it in the two award-winning works "Drei Sonette nach Martin Opitz" and "MEYENMUSICK" for four horns, or the highly acclaimed string quartet "Sisifo", a significant contribution to this genre.

For forty years, saxophonist Arno Bornkamp has consistently dazzled the music world with his energetic and passionate interpretations. On his new GENUIN CD "Folies de Baryton", the world-renowned artist gives his audience a glowing declaration of love for the baritone saxophone, which is rarely played as a soloist. Bornkamp shows here the immense possibilities of this instrument with its deep, raw, and powerful tone. The program focuses almost exclusively on contemporary music, featuring works by Gyorgi Kurtag, Peter Vigh, Giuseppe Ruggiero, and Luca Francesconi. Bornkamp juxtaposes them with several of Marin Marais' famous variations on "Les Folies d'Espagne", which sound as natural as if they had been written for saxophone more than 300 years ago. What an exciting sound journey!

The German radio broadcaster Deutschlandfunk Kultur, the German Music Council, and GENUIN once again jointly present the debut CD of a promising young musician: organist Aurel Dawidiuk is the winner of the 2022 German Music Competition in the organ category. His stellar career, however, goes far beyond that, as Dawidiuk is also celebrating his first international successes as a pianist and conductor. Exploring the theme of B-A-C-H in his organ debut, the major organ works assembled here span three centuries and include music by Johann Sebastian Bach himself, Johann Krebs, Franz Liszt, Zsigmond Szathmáry, and Max Reger – a rich diversity of music covering a wide range of styles!

The new GENUIN CD, featuring a chamber music version of Mahler's 2nd Symphony, offers the listener a new and unusual perspective on this work of the century! Pianists Gregor Meyer and Walter Zoller, together with the Gewandhaus Choir under the direction of Frank-Steffen Elster, used the four-hand piano version of the Resurrection Symphony as a basis, which the legendary Bruno Walter had created around 1900, still under the watchful eye of Gustav Mahler. The radical nature of the piece and its harmonic and formal ventures come to light in this version as if placed under a magnifying glass. Annika Steinbach (soprano) and Henriette Gödde (alto), as well as Emanuel Mütze (trumpet), contribute to this extraordinary, top-notch listening experience!

Cellist Adam Mital is a prizewinner of numerous competitions, including the Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig, Germany, and the International Adam Cello Competition in Christchurch, New Zealand. He has now poured his experience as a soloist and chamber musician into a CD released by GENUIN, which brings together three of Johann Sebastian Bach's brilliant suites for solo cello. With a wink of his eye, the brilliant musician Adam Mital gives us another highly virtuosic composition of his own for solo cello. In doing so, he follows the established, centuries-old tradition of the composer being inseparable from the performer: a highly inspiring musical unity!

With his first two piano concertos, the young Ludwig van Beethoven presented himself in Vienna as the man of the hour and the musician of the future. This new style and momentum is brought to life from the very first note by the eleven musicians around the multi-award-winning Aris Alexander Blettenberg on their current GENUIN CD. The arrangements, written especially for the orchestra of the Kammeroper München, reveal the details of the original scores transparently without losing any of their orchestral radiance. Conductor, pianist, and composer Aris Alexander Blettenberg leads the orchestra with dynamism and expressiveness from the grand piano.

A live recording from Leipzig featuring soprano Anne Schwanewilms, pianist Manuel Lange and actor Wolf-Dietrich Rammler is now being released by GENUIN. The program of this top-class evening included the Seven Early Songs by Alban Berg, the poems of Hilde Domin, and the song cycle Dennoch by Stefan Heucke. The latter is also based on poems by Hilde Domin and is presented here as a world-premiere recording. Anne Schwanewilms, Manuel Lange and Wolf-Dietrich Rammler take us on an intensive journey, carefully arranged in a sequence of music and text: From personal life journeys to the universal – a humanitarian appeal of great poetry and music!

On their first GENUIN release, the young musicians of the Gellert Ensemble from Central Germany bring an absolute repertoire rarity to life. Under its conductor Andreas Mitschke, the ensemble has produced the oratorio The Raising of Lazarus by Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, the so-called "Bückeburg Bach," on the Leipzig label. Bach wrote his dramatic work together with the Sturm und Drang poet Johann Gottfried Herder, a colorful and nuanced portrait based on the unbelievable story from the New Testament. The Gellert Ensemble presents historical performance practice at the highest level in an impressive, spirited performance!

The organ duo Marion Krall and Lars Schwarze take us to enchanted lands with their new GENUIN album, playing their own transcriptions of great orchestral works for organ with four hands and four feet. Since the Baroque era, orchestral works have been transcribed for the organ. Even today, the instrument's various colors make it possible to discover new, unexpected, but equally rich sounds in seemingly familiar works. The internationally awarded duo has now recorded works by Paul Dukas, Edward Elgar, Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky. The contemporary contribution is the radiant tone poem Kalliope by the Austrian composer Franz Danksagmüller, which is positively overflowing with imagination. A surprising album featuring the sound of the organ in all its grandeur and moments of true intimacy.