Shinnosuke Inugai is an exceptional artist: not only has he won numerous competitions and possesses a vast repertoire, the young Japanese pianist feels at home in jazz as well as in classical music and has a special gift for improvisation. Therefore, what could be more natural for Inugai than to record his own music on his new GENUIN album in addition to orchestral piano music from early Romanticism to Classical Modernism? Stravinsky, Schumann, Albéniz, and Scriabin frame sparkling improvisations in colorful interpretations: From playing with white keys to the reverberation of distant bells to echoes of folk music – utterly enchanting!

Late works played by a young achiever: The up-and-coming American pianist Eric Lu plays major works of music on his first Genuin album. With this, he casts a spell on us from the distant opening bars of Mozart's A minor Rondo. Schubert's Impromptus also come from a different world and with Brahms piano pieces op. 118 he let's the autumn of Romanticism blow over to us. Listening to these recordings, one can understand why he not only won the International German Piano Award 2017, but also the Chopin Competition and several others. Transcendent! Nineteen years old at the time of this recording, Eric Lu first gained international acclaim by becoming one of the youngest competitors to win the Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung praised the "phenomenal technical mastery" of his playing, emphasizing that though "he may seem shy, he is able to captivate his audience." The Verlagsgruppe Rhein-Main commended his performance as "sensitive, alternating between melancholy and rebellion, he brings out the expressive threads of the work and sculpts melodic lines from the virtuoso and richly textured piano part with fascinating lucidity."

What did Haydn sound like while he was on tour in London, giving concerts and teaching? Today, nobody perhaps comes closer to the sound from that time than Rebecca Maurer, who plays here on her original London fortepiano from 1816. Furthermore, the internationally sought-after fortepiano virtuoso does this with dazzling technique and immaculate stylistic confidence. The repertoire is also sensational, above all because it is not every day that one finds world premiere recordings by Haydn students on program flyers: fragrant music of Sentimentalism with some hints of Romanticism by Thomas Haigh and Christian Ignatius Latrobe. Outstanding repertoire! Equally at home on the fortepiano and harpsichord, Rebecca Maurer is acclaimed as one of the outstanding specialists for historical keyboard instruments of her generation. She studied piano, harpsichord and fortepiano in Freiburg, Amsterdam and at Cornell University where she held a fellowship. Her previous recording was nominated for the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik as well as for an International Classical Music Award in the Baroque instrumental category.

Jewish Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg is associated with the expressionist movement and is touted as the leader of the Second Viennese School. This new release features Schoenberg’s four numbered string quartets. Even inside this single genre, these works are extraordinarily diverse. The Asasello Quartet has released two previous albums, both of which have been well-reviewed. They are known for their unconventional concerts, and are now making a name for themselves by winning international competitions.

Samira Spiegel is an exceptional talent: she has won prizes at international competitions on both the violin and the piano! With GENUIN, she now presents an exciting album featuring music for both instruments inspired by Bach. On the piano, the works range from Franz Liszt's "Fantasie und Fuge" to Busoni's adaptation of the "Chaconne" and Francis Poulenc's "Waltz Improvisation" to Damian Scholl's "une fleuve tranquille" from 2013. On the violin, she juxtaposes Eugène Ysaye's fifth solo sonata, which is genuinely haunted by Bach, with the original "Chaconne" by the great Leipzig master. An adventurous and ludicrously virtuosic ride through styles and centuries!

The cosmopolitan Franz Liszt and the unpretentious Franz Schubert couldn't have been more unlike in terms of lives that they led. But with their musical oeuvre, they maintain a symbiotic relationship to this day: Schubert's works were always an inspiring, "magnificent treasure" to Liszt, which he was very fond of sharing with the world. Therefore, Liszt was an advocate of Schubert's reception wherever possible. On concert tours, he also always had Schubert's music with him, including many lieder as piano transcriptions. Viacheslav Apostel-Pankratowsky traces the synergies of this artistic alliance on his debut release with GENUIN: with exceptional reserve, energetic musical language, and warm nuance.

On the new GENUIN album Idylle, we accompany the young clarinetist Joë Christophe and his piano partner Vincent Mussat on an emotional journey that passes through familiar and unfamiliar terrain and encounters sophistication, simplicity, passion, and tenderness. The prize-winning release of the ARD Music Competition is also the duo's debut release which, in the selected works of the 20th and 21st centuries, proves to be highly versatile and rich in colors. In addition to music by Claude Debussy and Rebecca Clarke, the track list includes Mark Simpson's Three Pieces: A world premiere recording of the music written by the British composer as a commission for the ARD Music Competition.

Reflections of the soul, fruits of pleasure, places of longing: we find all of these when we listen to Eva Resch’s new GENUIN release. Following the two productions Being Beauteous and Insights, both nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award, Eva Resch and pianist Eric Schneider devote themselves to songs that offer remarkable contrasts to the violent, even disastrous times when they were written. The program features cycles by Ullmann, Schoenberg, Webern, and Schreker. Eva Resch’s full-bodied and supple voice and Eric Schneider’s precise piano playing do complete justice to this shimmering, virtuoso and at the same time almost sensual and drunken literature. Enthusiastically recommended repertoire from a forgotten era!

The flute, one of the most versatile instruments of all, is the focus of the new GENUIN release by Japanese flutist Atsuko Koga. The winner of international competitions presents a distinctive mixture of original compositions and arrangements together with cellist Georgiy Lomakov that range from Telemann and Beethoven to Villa-Lobos and world premiere recordings by Minako Tokuyama. Whether it is birdsong, soulful cantilenas, virtuoso passagework, or noisy musical magic, the choice of works and the clear, vibrant interpretations of the two artists demonstrate the flute's and cello's many facets.

The composers Maia Cabeza unites on her debut album come from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. She traces the musical traditions that flowed into the compositions of the 1920s and 1930s by Janacek, Veress, Holliger, Enescu, Schulhoff and Bartók. The exception in this picture is Heinz Holliger's sparkling Spring Dance of 2001: a very unique approach to the musical heritage of his native Switzerland. The Canadian-American violinist Maia Cabeza, winner of the 2018 Johann Sebastian Bach Competition, together with Zoltan Fejérvari on the piano, makes these different influences delicately audible.

What doesn't resonate with the expression "Fin de Siècle"! It encompasses the rich cultural diversity of the period around 1900, the breadth of which still amazes us today. It is best approached in individual works, for example, in the music from different European spheres, which Duo Aust presents in its new GENUIN album. Bettina Aust, clarinet, and Robert Aust, piano, have won international awards and have been sponsored by Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now and the German Academic Exchange Service. They have complied musical works ranging from the throwback approach of Camille Saint-Saëns to the virtuosic and visionary sounds of Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky.

An exciting new look at a seemingly familiar musical genre is provided by the multi-award-winning Korean pianist Jackie Jaekyung Yoo: on her new GENUIN release, she plays etudes by Ligeti, Lutoslawski, and Liszt and explores the relationship between art and technique. The extremely virtuoso works are in the tradition of Chopin, who was the first to lend the étude artistic quality. Jackie Jaekyung Yoo's far-reaching playing places Liszt's homages to Paganini and Ligeti's exciting Désordre, Fanfares, or his Arc-en-ciel (“Rainbow”) in entirely new contexts.

Among the promising percussionists of his generation is Kai Strobel, who has already won the renowned TROMP Percussion Competition Eindhoven and the 2019 ARD Music Competition. On his debut release, the young percussionist presents himself as a mature, imaginative artist. With marimba, vibraphone, and two setups, he does not merely deliver a virtuoso display of equipment. Instead, he reflects thoughtfully, almost melancholically, on the quiet spherical sounds of these versatile instruments. Works by great contemporaries such as Toru Takemitsu or Iannis Xenakis can be heard, as well as world premiere recordings of works composed especially for him. Sensitive and musical – moving sounds on Kai Strobel's debut!

Frivolous young ladies, sisters with suicidal desires, crows, a depressed wanderer, and many other strange characters meet in colorful musical garb on the GENUIN debut album of the lied duo Alice Lackner and Imke Lichtwark . Music by Schönberg and Zemlinsky, written for the legendary Überbrettl cabaret in Berlin, is combined with contemporary music by Sven Daigger, two of which were written specifically for this release. Lackner and Lichtwark approach the art songs straddling all genres with seriousness and extraordinary lightness. Listeners can expect sharp character sketches ranging from passionate love to honky-tonk and the dark abysses of the soul.

Just how much wonderful French music there is to discover from the period circa 1900 is revealed to us by Duo Avad on their new GENUIN CD. Cellist Clemens Krieger and pianist Rieko Yoshizumi present original compositions and arrangements that reach far beyond the standard repertoire. The CD features tiny treasures of little-known composers such as Gabriel Pierné and Louis Vierne as well as unknown works by the 'greats' such as Debussy, Ravel and Fauré. Of particular note is the 'Soir triste' by Lili Boulanger, who died much too early. Reconstructed by the ensemble, it is recorded here for the first time. This is intimate, impressionistic chamber music, elegantly and finely performed at the highest level.