With his virtuosic yet unpretentious style pianist Martin Helmchen is increasingly recognised on the international music scene performing with the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert Blomstedt, Vienna Philharmonic under Valery Gergiev, London Philharmonic with Vladimir Jurowski, the City of Birmingham Symphony and Andris Nelsons and Orchestre de Paris and Christoph von Dohnànyi. The great recital venues of Europe also regularly appear on Martin Helmchen’s schedule including London’s Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Vienna’s Musikverein. During 2010/2011 season Martin Helmchen makes his debut with Sir Mark Elder in a return to the Hallé Orchestra and in North America he performs a recital debut at the prestigious Vancouver Recital Society and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Festival. On tour he is soloist with the NHK Symphony Tokyo and Sir Roger Norrington, the NDR Hannover orchestra under the baton of Andrés Orozco-Estrada and with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Sir Neville Marriner on an extensive tour of Germany. Martin Helmchen maintains regular partnerships in chamber music with Heinrich Schiff, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and Julia Fischer touring throughout Europe. Recording exclusively for PentaTone, Martin Helmchen has released a disc of Mozart concerti with the Netherlands Chamber Philharmonic, Schumann and Dvorak with the Orchestre Philhamonique de Strasbourg under Marc Albrecht and most recently the Mendelssohn concerti with Royal Flanders Philharmonic and Philippe Herreweghe. His first solo recording of Schubert works won an ECHO Award in 2009 and a disc of Schubert duos with Julia Fischer has won equal high praise. Martin Helmchen received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2004.

Last updated: February 2011

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

• Study costs
• Survival money for a sabbatical
• New photos
• Live CD recording with the London Philharmonic Orchestra

Artist Website

www.martin-helmchen.com

General Management

Erdmuthe Pirlich at Konzertdirektion Schmid, Hannover
telephone: + 49 511 36607 69
erdmuthe.pirlich@kdschmid.de
www.kdschmid.de

Local Manager (UK, Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand)

Emma-Jane Stokely at Konzertdirektion Schmid, London
telephone: +44 2073950914
emma-jane.stokely@kdschmid.co.uk
www.kdschmid.co.uk