From the slightest sound of a raindrop to the roar of a waterfall: The Wave Quartet unleashes the force of four great marimbas to pay tribute to the tango reformer Astor Piazzolla, let the Grand Seigneur of the tango Carlos Gardel sing and allow us to breathe the Mexican mountain air of Rodrigo y Gabriela... In short, the four award-winning musicians (Christoph Sietzen was the third prize winner of the ARD competition in 2014) let the mallets fly in their new GENUIN CD so that one cannot help but dance with them... As one says in Spanish: "Loco" - crazy!

For the first time, star tenor Daniel Behle sings in a GENUIN production: Together with the Orchestra of the Munich Chamber Opera, he interprets two of the most beautiful song cycles ever, namely Franz Schubert's Schwanengesang and Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe. In both cycles, Alexander Krampe transforms the original piano accompaniment into an exciting orchestral arrangement. This is supported by the tonally rich and supple voice of Daniel Behle in the most fortunate manner: from the delicate textures of Schubert's Liebesbotschaft to the pale expanses of his Doppelgänger to the cutting rhythms of Schumann's Die alten, bösen Lieder.

The young cellist Sebastian Fritsch demonstrates his sense of musical expression on his debut release, which joins the ranks of the prizewinner recordings of the German Music Competition. At times delicate, at times turbulent, he plays his instrument in a program that is rich in contrasts, ranging from Antonio Vivaldi, Robert Schumann, and Sergei Rachmaninov to the contemporary composer György Kurtág. He courageously takes on all these different styles and challenges and finds his own narrative form. The joy and passion in the interaction with the harpsichordist Olga Watts and the pianist Oliver Triendl can be clearly felt when listening to the recordings.

Following two releases featuring Schubert, Shostakovich, and Beethoven, the Aris Quartet, one of the leading award-winning chamber music ensembles of recent years, has put Johannes Brahms on the program of its third GENUIN album. Included are two key works of the chamber music literature of the 19th century: The String Quartet in C minor, dating from the early period of maturity, is characterized by how the composer dealt with personal losses and how he overcame great doubts. The Clarinet Quintet is one of Brahms' last works ever. A swan song to his oeuvre, perhaps even to Romanticism in general. Enchantingly beautiful playing by a magnificent ensemble!

Serbian pianist Mirjana Rajic and clarinetist Ognjen Popovic serve up an exciting program of duo compositions on their new GENUIN release, the second by Mirjana Rajic. Both prizewinners of numerous competitions travel musically throughout Europe and perform music by Camille Saint-Saëns, Norbert Burgmüller, Malcolm Arnold, and, last but not least, original compositions by Ognjen Popovic. The range extends from sonata to character piece; the oldest piece is almost 200 years old, the youngest is from 2018.

From the nature sounds of the opening to the edgy "heavy metal" of the conclusion: this GENUIN release by the Lake Brass Ensemble is a production full of good humor and meaty sounds! The young musicians under Norbert Stertz perform this richly orchestrated brass music with an impressive low brass group, with two tenor horns and a tuba providing a velvety, fleshy lining to the brilliance of their dazzling colleagues. In addition to two world premiere recordings - Kerry Turner's Lake Constance Fantasy and Alexander Reuber's Cerberus - the tracklist features known and unknown, but above all magically shimmering works: film music by Hans Zimmer and John Williams, symphonic selections by Gustav Mahler, and chamber music by Dmitri Shostakovich. Simply brilliant!

Once again, the collaboration between Geniun and the German Music Council has resulted in a true dream release: Katharina Konradi, the winner of the 2016 German Music Competition, has chosen songs from the Romantic period to the modern age for the Primavera Edition. They are set between day and dream, between moonlight and midnight, and their spectrum ranges from Schubert's Faith in Spring to Lori Laitman's tragic songs from Theresienstadt. The flexible soprano voice of the young singer is ideally suited for this literature, nestling in perfect harmony with the lost dreamlike sounds from Schubert to Trojahn - a magnificent debut album!

Seven composers from four continents and three centuries, together with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach: this is the extraordinary repertoire with which the Lux Nova Duo presents itself on its new GENUIN release. Lydia Schmidl and Jorge Paz Verastegui do not attempt saintly reverence, but search, sense, explore Bach and echoes of his music with joy and virtuosity in a wide range of works. There are Rameau's exquisite harmonies, a graceful and witty homage by Shostakovich, South American spices by Alejandro Núñez Allauca, exciting fragments by Tristan Xavier Köster and much more. An album for discoverers and adventurers!

Iannis Xenakis invented his own instruments for Les Pléiades, a suggestive, interstellar work for percussion ensemble. And once again the Ensemble DeciBells commissioned their very own grandiose musical instruments for their outstanding recording of this work. The musicians led by Basel solo timpanist Domenico Melchiorre play the shimmering music, which fuses the boundaries between individual instrument, ensemble, and listener on a dizzying scale: subtle and yet with nerve! Percussion ensemble DeciBells is closely associated with new music, and regularly works on projects with contemporary composers. The ensemble’s roots are in Basel, however, concert tours have taken them to Asia and throughout Europe. DeciBells is Adrian Romaniuc, David Gurtner, Robin Fourmeau, Sakiko Yasui, Szilard Buti, Till Lingenberg, and Domenico Melchiorre.

Two highly awarded German musicians present themselves on GENUIN with a powerful Shostakovich album: The sisters Anouchka (cello) and Katharina Hack (piano) combine the early Cello Sonata, Op. 40, and the late work of the Viola Sonata, Op. 147. It is a fascinating experiment that not only takes into account the life of the Russian composer but also focuses on his vital, rousing music. Anouchka and Katharina Hack have been bringing musical freshness and passion for some years now both as soloists as well as in Duo to concert halls including Beethovenhaus Bonn, Gasteig Munich, Fondation Louis Vuitton Paris and Konzerthaus Dortmund. The Duo plays numerous recitals appreciated by press and audience alike; they were broadcast by the WDR and NDR and by medici.tv. In November 2018 they gave their debut at the Berliner Philharmoniker Lunch concert series at the Berliner Philharmonie, in summer 2019 they were invited to play a recital at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival.

Yvonne Smeulers, the internationally award-winning violinist, is releasing her second album on GENUIN: two milestones of the repertoire, the violin concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven and Alban Berg. GENUIN and the young Dutch virtuoso are thereby building on the success of their highly praised first partnership with works by Eugène Ysaÿe. The two violin concertos play a unique role in the repertoire, putting musical sense before virtuosity, content before external appearance. Beethoven and Berg combine improvisational lightness with depth. Yvonne Smeulers crosses broad horizons in her new recording, which is deeply serious, but also full of exuberant musical joy!

Bassoonist Theo Plath is currently the talk of the town: After winning the 2018 German Music Competition, which awarded him this Primavera Edition prizewinner album, he also impressed audiences at the 2019 ARD Music Competition. Be it as a soloist, chamber musician, or solo bassoonist with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Theo Plath simply thrills his audiences. On his solo debut recording, he combines Romantic bassoon concertos by Carl Maria von Weber and Bernhard Crusell with modern French compositions by Marcel Bitsch and André Jolivet. Accompanied by the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie under the baton of Leo McFall, he lets the broad spectrum of the bassoon's expressive possibilities resound, from melancholic lyricism to witty charm.

They like to think big: with "Insights," the highly acclaimed recording of Arnold Schönberg's complete string quartets for the GENUIN label, the Asasello Quartet has created a monument for itself and laid the foundation for an even larger project. For the several-part album and concert cycle "Orbit Schönberg," the Asasello Quartet has now commissioned works from the renowned composers Lisa Streich, Márton Illés and Viera Janárceková. Each of these works complements and reacts in a unique way to a string quartet by Schönberg as well as that of a Schönberg predecessor (Beethoven, Brahms, Reger). The exceptional ensemble records the fascinating result on its new GENUIN album "Insights to-morrow."

The name Hitchcock not only stands for the most famous of all British film directors, but for an important family of English instrument makers from England as well. Only a few of these sonorous and extravagant keyboard instruments have survived. The multi-stringed spinet No. 1379 from the Telemann Museum in Hamburg, with its black keys elaborately set in white ivory, can now be heard for the first time in a recording. The Hitchcock Trio invites you to a typical middle-class salon concert as was customary throughout Europe at the end of the 18th century. Selected London compositions by Burney, Geminiani, Abel, and Loeillet (a celebrated harpsichordist of his time), as well as works by the famous Hamburg composers Telemann and Mattheson, are featured. The trio, whose members include Anke Dennert (London spinet from 1730), Gabriele Steinfeld (South German baroque violin), and Simone Eckert (Hamburg Tielke gamba from 1685), allow the expressive sounding Hitchcock spinet to shine, both as a solo instrument and in a chamber music setting.

The exceptional violinist Judith Ingolfsson has brought genuine rarities to the market with her new GENUIN release. Only a handful of violinists around the world perform the highly demanding sonatas for solo violin by Artur Schnabel and Eduard Erdmann, and there is currently no commercial recording of Erdmann's work at all! The sonatas of these two great pianists and composers represent autonomous musical universes that are peppered with technical difficulties and are full of depth and character. A musical message in a bottle from a forgotten time that is absolutely worth recovering!