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Ax Genrich is a master guitarist from Berlin, Germany. He played with The Lords, Agitation Free, Guru Guru, RIF and many others and belongs without any doubt to one of the key persons of Krautrock music within the last 40 years. 1973 he became the best guitarist of Germany. "Highdelberg" is Genrich's first solo venture originally from 1975. Along for the ride are Mani Neumeller from Guru Guru, Jen Fride (Kraan), Peter Wollbrandt (Kraan), Helmut Hattler (Kraan), Deiter Morbius and Achim Roedelius (Harmonia, Cluster).

Ax Genrich is a German guitarist who went all experimental after getting involved in the primordial Krautrock scene, briefly with Agitation Free after which he then joined the legendary Guru Guru and stayed with them 1970-1974.
This is basically reissue of his first album (1975 - "Highdelberg") mixed with two unreleased Guru Guru tracks: live "Electric Junk" from 1971 and "Oxymoron" recorded for Beat Club TV show and two tracks from his new solo albums: "Blow Up" from 1994 album "Psychedelic Guitar" and "Come Back" from his 1995 album "Wave Cut". Bonus tracks are cool and "Highdelberg" is a good albums with Mani the usual Guru Guru friends helping out (Kraan, Harmonia etc). It has a very rustic relaxed feel to it, with some psychedelic-folk like tunes mixed with acid out-there, and ambient tracks.

The required calling card of any pianist-composer in the 1820s and '30s was a virtuosic piano piece accompanied by an orchestra. When the 21-year-old Chopin arrived in Paris in the fall of 1831, he had several such compositions under his arm, including the Concerto in E Minor (which, although the first of his two concertos to be published, was composed after the Concerto in F Minor) and the already heralded Variations (which had inspired Robert Schumann to remark, "Hats off, gentlemen–a genius.").

Recorded for two different record companies over 14 years in five different locations, Emanuel Ax's Brahms concertos plus his Two Rhapsodies, Op. 79; Three Intermezzos, Op. 117; and Four Piano Pieces, Op. 119, are joined together for the first time here on two discs. Given the span in space and time, Ax is surprisingly quite consistent in his approach. The same emphasis on content over form, on heart over mind, on lyricism over drama is equally present in both concertos as well as in all the solo works.

"Hope Amid Tears," the new album by Yo-Yo Ma together with his friend and pianist Emanuel Ax, presents Beethoven’s five sonatas for cello and piano in the order in which they were composed, tracing an important arc in Beethoven’s development and approach as a composer. Joining them are Beethoven’s three sets of variations for cello and piano.

Antonin Dvorák's Piano Quartet No. 2 is one of the greatest chamber works of the 19th century (as are many of Dvorák's chamber compositions). Written in 1889 at the request of his publisher Simrock, it is a big, bold work filled with the Czech master's trademark melodic fecundity, harmonic richness, and rhythmic vitality. The first movement is a soaring, outdoor allegro with an assertively optimistic main theme accented by Czech contours and Dvorák's love of mixing major and minor modes. The Lento movement's wistful main theme is played with a perfect mixture of passion and poise by cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The music alternates between passages of drama and delicacy in this, one of Dvorák's finest slow movements in any medium. The Scherzo's stately waltz is contrasted by a lively, up-tempo Czech country dance. The finale is a high-stepping, high-spirited allegro with a strong rhythmic pulse that relaxes for the beautifully lyrical second subject.

World-famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma and his longtime collaborator, pianist Emanuel Ax, are joined by violinist Leonidas Kavakos in their first recording together of all three of the piano trios of Johannes Brahms. Ma and Ax have built together a distinguished catalogue of Brahms recordings, but this is their first recording of the Piano Trios and their first collaboration with Kavakos.

Though the name "Schoenberg" makes some people cringe, the Schoenberg piano concerto is a wonderful and highly expressive work. Though composed in the 12-tone style, it contains the same degree of lyricism and rhythmic drive that other, non-12-tone pieces have. Ax gives this concerto what it deserves- a highly sensitive performance that shows the concerto is a true piece of music rather than the product of a mechanical compositional process.