Martin Helmchen - Press

BBT Project: Shostakovich Piano Concertos & Piano Quintet LPO CD with London Philharmonic Orchestra / Vladimir Jurowski

“…a disc of exuberance and, as ever with this composer, melancholy.”
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer 20 March 2011

“Martin Helmchen shows himself adept in all aspects of No 1’s quirky humour, No 2’s playful high spirits and – in the famous Andante – a nostalgic romanticism Rachmaninov might have been proud of… What makes this disc more special is a truly superb account of Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet…this is one of the most impressive performances of the work that I’ve heard in recent years.”
Calum MacDonald, BBC Music Magazine July 2011

BBT Project: Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2, LPO, Jurowski

“Helmchen gave a delightfully unaffected, affectionate, and note-perfect performance”
Classical Source, 27 April 2009

“a pianist…with all the virtues – vision as well as virtuosity and vim – stipulated by his calling, not to mention a warm presence.”
Paul Driver, Sunday Times, 3 May 2009

BBT Project: Pentatone recording of Schubert’s Trout Quintet, a collaboration between BBT Award Winners Martin Helmchen, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and Antoine Tamestit, with BBT Honorary Committee member Christian Tetzlaff violin, plus Alois Posch double bass

“This is a marvellous disc, one of the most enjoyable I have heard in a long time… a great line-up of soloists, who seem to know one another very well, or to have clicked miraculously, with results that, in the case of the ‘Trout‘ Quintet, are more completely satisfactory than any account I have ever heard of this work.”

BBC Music Magazine, July 2009