CD 'Carmina Burana' with SWR

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 24.11.2011
Gerhard Rohde

...as well as the three soloists who perform their parts not only beautifully sung but also with a large variety of expressions such as the satirical rendering of the song of the 'fried swan'...
...Christoph Genz with a smooth tenor voice...


Bach St. John's Passion with Kent Nagano, Montreal

Bachtrack 10.11.2011

Tenor Christoph Genz, singing the Evangelist, acted the part of storyteller in masterfully delivered recitative. His voice was light and nimble, reaching high into its upper range with total ease. At all times Genz was connected to the drama and the text, propelling the story forward with concision and sensitivity. His consistency produced a wonderful unification and a sense of linearity in the concert.


The Montreal Gazette 11.11.2011

…I had to adjust to the light voice of tenor Christophe Genz as the Evangelist and came to appreciate his fine recitatives.


La Scena Musicale, 11.11.2011

As evangelist, German tenor Christoph Genz provided a lyrical narration of the drama, carrying the flow of the story with stunning clarity and smoothness.


Recital Heidelberg

Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung 21.07.2011

In Schubert's Schwanengesang Christoph Genz captured us with his truly beautiful and lyric singing. In a contemplative rendering of 'Die Taubenpost' he kept his singing clear of any feeling of a desperate soul. Later on he increased the drama through an excellent articulation of the text. His performance of 'Am Meer' was simply sublime.


Mannheimer Morgen 21.07.2011

Christoph Genz sings songs from the 'Schwanengesang' collection - with a bright, lyric and very seductive timbre. He thus manages to allure not only the Fischermädchen magically.


Recital with Charles Rosen, Maryland USA

Washington Post 22.10.2010

...Rosen teamed up with the terrific young German tenor Christoph Genz for the song cycle "Dichterliebe," restoring four songs that Schumann originally included but later took out (apparently for commercial reasons).
It was a memorable performance. Genz has an extremely clear, light voice, effortless and natural throughout its range, and his take on the songs was expressive but never overcooked. Restoring the four songs, meanwhile, was simply brilliant; each was a small gem, and together they extended the dramatic arc and brought new depth and interest to the entire work.


CD review 'Elijah'

The Telegraph, 08.10.2010

Sung in German and with a fine line-up of soloists in Ruth Ziesak, Claudia Mahnke, Christoph Genz and Ralf Lukas, this excellent performance of Mendelssohn’s great Biblical oratorio thrills both in the surges of choral glory and in the moments of tender reflection. Tenor Genz’s lyrical singing of the aria known in English as If With All Your Hearts alerts you early to the quality of the performance.


CD review, Matthew Passion with Sigiswald Kuijken

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 03.04.2010

...Especially to be mentioned is the espressivo and heartfelt clarity of the tenor and evangelist Christoph Genz


Fono Forum June 2010

...As evangelist and tenor soloist outstanding: Christoph Genz


BBC Music Magazine July 2010

Kuijken's blessed with gloriously natural and unaffected voices. His Evangelist, Christoph Genz, is outstanding, bending note-values and rests in favour of expressive narration...the sheer beauty of tone and line is deeply moving.


Concert at the Bachfest Leipzig

Leipziger Volkszeitung 16.06. 2008

…the outstanding former member of the St. Thomas’ Boys Choir Christoph Genz. It is a pleasure to listen to that smooth and floating voice. Genz tackles the difficulties in Handel’s arias impressively, never forces his voice. His voice rests glowingly in the middle from where it develops into the more dramatic moments. A great enjoyment and fantastic recommendation to purchase his latest CD with arias by Handel.’


Recital in the Gewandhaus Leipzig, Schubert’s ‚Schwanengesang’

Leipziger Volkszeitung 22.04. 2008

…Genz’ beautiful voice is a smooth and shining tenor voice with a certain metallic brilliancy – a voice one could go on listening to for ever. Through him Schubert’s songs become gripping stories.


Bach’s St. John’s Passion with Markus Stenz, Philharmony Cologne

Kölnische Rundschau 25.03. 2008

…the crucial part of the evangelist was in great hands with Christoph Genz, his ‚und weinete bitterlich’ was deeply moving.’


Concert at the MDR Musicsummerfestival, St. Thomas Church Leipzig

Leipziger Volkszeitung, 30.07. 2007

…tenor Christoph Genz in Bach’s solo cantata BWV 55 ‚Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht’ was already worth coming to the concert. One can’t get enough of his wonderfully smooth and shining tenor voice. He performs his recitatives and arias elegantly and sensitively – a rare enjoyment.’


Elijah with Herbert Blomstedt and San Francisco Symphony Orchestra

San Francisco Chronicle, 26.03. 2007

‘…The evening’s most exciting discovery was tenor Christoph Genz, whose phenomenal debut was marked by gorgeous, burnished tone and fluid phrasing. The aria ‘If with all your hearts ye truly seek me’, which may be the score’s most sumptuously beautiful stretch of writing, sounded even more heart-stopping in Genz’ version’


Production of Mozart’s ‚Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebotes’ with Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna

Kronenzeitung, 14.04. 2006

‚…Christoph Genz, pupil of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and former member of the King’s College Choir is a sovereign ‚Christ’, breath-taking his aria with the solo trombone.’


Christmas Oratorio with Helmut Rilling

Ruhr Nachrichten, 11.12. 2006

…tenor Christoph Genz needs to be mentioned especially – so clear and superhumanly beautiful in the higher tessitura like a choir boy.’


Kölnische Rundschau, 24.12. 2004

…Rilling follows closely the Evangelist Christoph Genz as if the Scripture was read here and today for the very first time. Genz’ singing is light and heady, the coloratura with the 32nds in the ‘Hirtenaria’ he manages without the slightest problems.’


Berliner Zeitung, 22.12. 2004

…With Christoph Genz we could admire a high lyric tenor of a quality we haven’t heard since Christoph Pregardien.He performs his aria ‚Frohe Hirten eilt, ach eilet’ with a phenomenal liberty and sovereignity. Here we really do get a feeling of Advent. With his rhetorically masterful singing Genz shows us the emphatic beauty of the German language which is so often lost in our everyday prattle.


Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with J.E. Gardiner, St. Thomas Church Leipzig

Leipziger Volkszeitung, 06.05. 2005

..if there weren’t Dietrich Henschel (bass) and tenor Christoph Genz.Both speak so naturally and flawlessly that we simply forget questions concerning the text and just listen. Their singing is of such perfection that we don’t think about technical aspects either. What remains is the narration of the Evangelist Christoph Genz. Relaxed yet poignant, full of calm yet also filled with tension. And finally so fresh and new as if we heard it for the very first time.’


Carl Orff’s ‚The Moon’ at the Classic Open Air Festival, Semper Opera Dresden

Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten, 11.07. 2005

‚… narrator Christoph Genz with a wonderful diction and a fantastically flowing tenor voice led with candle, hat and cloak through the story from the balcony of the opera.’


Recital with Stephan Genz, barytone

Wiesbadener Tagblatt, 12.05. 2004

…Christoph Genz whom we have heard already in Wiesbaden as Tamino in Mozart’s ‘Zauberflöte’ has like his younger brother Stephan a very smooth and carefully guided voice with an outstanding diction which lets us understand even the finest nuances of the text. Exceptional is his easy and heady high register of the voice, his excellent singing is very musical yet never without control.’


CD with Schubert Songs, Naxos

BBC Music Magazine, February 2003

If you want to get to know some marvelous late Schubert songs for minimal outlay, Genz's intelligent, personable performances, sympathetically accompanied by Wolfram Rieger, won't disappoint.