Musicians in the Baroque period had to reinvent themselves time and again: their repertoire was not fixed; instead, they improvised, adapted, and transcribed - something that was not seen as theft but as a high virtue! Recorder player Max Volbers, the winner of the 2021 German Music Competition, revives this tradition on his solo debut CD with GENUIN: he gathers top-class musicians around him for the recording of his own arrangements, paraphrases, and pastiche of works by Bach, Monteverdi, and Vivaldi. Works that are partly familiar to us, but which we have never heard before, full of soul, inspired, and knowledgeably performed!

The full interview with Max Volbers for the CD booklet in English and German can be found here.



Max Volbers is a prize winner of the OPUS Klassik 2023 in the category Newcomer of the year.



Mundoclasico.com
"Ein Paradebeispiel für Virtuosität und Farbe [...]. Das ist das beste Beispiel dafür, was dieses lange zu Unrecht unterschätzte Instrument leisten kann." Review pubished on 16 August 2023

American Record Guide
"There are technical fireworks here - absolutely clean. [...] All the playing is excellent and balanced well."
Review published in July/August 2023 issue

Midlands Classical Music Making
"What I found especially commendable about this disc is that he has not taken the easy option of recording just standard works but has put together a highly entertaining programme of transcriptions, paraphrases and pastiches (many by Volbers himself) of works by Bach, Monteverdi, Purcell, Vivaldi and more." Rezension vom 01.04.2023

Fono Forum
"technically sovereign and musically pleasantly balanced"
Review by Matthias Hengelbrock, April 2023

klassik.com
"a feast for friends of all that is possible on the recorder"
Review by Matthias Lange, February 07, 2023

Windkanal
"Max Volbers succeeded with this CD perhaps the most brilliant and - as the booklet text written by him also proves - the cleverest, most imaginative recorder- debut of the last 20 years. Must be heard!" Review by Thomas Baack, Augabe 1/2023

rbb kultur - CD of the week
"With his tremendously colorful and virtuosic debut album, he does the very best advertising for his instrument."
Review by Rainer Baumgärtner, October 17-23, 2022