Genuin

Common ground in differences, moments, and eternity: The new GENUIN CD by the internationally award-winning pianist Nadezda Pisareva makes great strides with major works by Franz Schubert and Ludwig van Beethoven. The younger composer's Six moments musicaux and the older composer's Hammerklavier Sonata were written at roughly the same time, both marking the epochal shift from the Classical to the Romantic era in their own way. The young pianist, who counts pianist Georgy Tchaidze, violinist Diana Tischenko and the Casals Quartet among her chamber music partners, is enormously impressive in her approach to both musical works, tracing their structures with clarity.

A new GENUIN album featuring the Leopold Mozart Quartet is dedicated to the string quartet works of composer Heinz Winbeck, who died in 2019. The Augsburg ensemble, made of four musicians who are active throughout Germany, is known for its high artistic quality, demanding programming, and enormous versatility. Winbeck's three string quartets were written in a period of only five years, between 1979 and 1984, and are the expression of a mature composer at the height of his powers. An unconditional will characterizes Winbeck's music to expressivity and is particularly evident in the interpretation by the Leopold Mozart Quartet: Expansive lines, the use of sparse material, and the search for extreme states – gripping, new chamber music!

The freshness of works of a young master: this is what we discover on the new GENUIN album presented by the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra Essen under the direction of Johannes Klumpp. In Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Divertimenti K. 136-138, we hear a young composer in the process of growing up. The top-class, versatile orchestra performs these sparkling treasures lovingly and with spirit, full of dynamism and effervescent humor!

The first release by the MDR Radio Chorus under its new director Risto Joost is not just a confession of faith, but truly a confession of sound as well: the ensemble’s second GENUIN release presents Russian sacred music. What impressive musical contrasts we hear in the remarkable acoustics of Leipzig’s Paul Gerhardt Church: distinctive contours from the too-little-known classicist Dmitry Bortniansky (1751–1825) feature alongside the monumental blocks of sound and etheric soundscapes of Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto for Choir. Both works bear witness not only to the power of faith, but also of music, interpreted by the MDR Radio Chorus with eloquence, sparkling precision, and total commitment – absolutely recommended!