Martin Helmchen

Martin Helmchen - Schubert: Quintet “The Trout”, Variations on “Trokne Blumen” (2009)

Martin Helmchen - Schubert: Quintet “The Trout”, Variations on “Trokne Blumen” (2009)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 69:05 | 313 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: PentaTone classics | Catalog: PTC 5186 334

Yes, it sounds crazy to make yet another recording of Schubert's Trout Quintet a "reference recording", particularly given the number of really good ones already in circulation. Never mind. There is no finer performance available, and certainly none better recorded: gorgeous, perfectly natural sound whether in regular stereo or SACD surround-sound. So what makes this performance so special? First, and speaking generally, this has got to be one of the most shapely, elegant, and effortlessly flowing versions ever committed to disc.
Sharon Kam, Martin Helmchen, Gustav Rivinius - Brahms: Sonatas & Trios (2009)

Sharon Kam, Martin Helmchen, Gustav Rivinius - Brahms: Sonatas & Trios (2009)
WEB | FLAC (tracks) - 234 MB | MP3 (CBR 320 kbps) - 169 MB | 01:05:55
Genre: Classical | Label: Berlin Classics

Start with the sound: Berlin Classics here offers chamber music recorded in a chamber like the ones for which it was intended. Israeli clarinetist Sharon Kam, along with German pianist Martin Helmchen (there's something that wouldn't have been so common until recently) and cellist Gustav Rivinius, performs Brahms' three late chamber masterpieces for clarinet in the Siemens-Villa in Berlin, not the studio it sounds like but a genuine villa in Berlin's swank Lichterfelde neighborhood.
Martin Helmchen - Schubert: Trout Quintet, Trockne Blumen Variations, Notturno (2009) MCH PS3 ISO + DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Martin Helmchen - Schubert: Trout Quintet, Trockne Blumen Variations, Notturno (2009)
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 68:40 minutes | Scans included | 3,75 GB
or DSD64 2.0 Stereo (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Full Scans included | 1,77 GB
or FLAC Stereo (carefully converted & encoded to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Full Scans included | 1,41 GB
Features Stereo and Multichannel Surround Sound | Label: Pentatone # PTC 5186 334

Young pianist Martin Helmchen again shows his affinity for Schubert in this magnificent reading of the Trout Quintet. There are currently 90 listings of the Trout Quintet for the unusual combination of piano, string trio, and double bass. What distinguishes this one from most of the other eighty-nine is the coolly accomplished, no-nonsense approach of Helmchen and his mates. This is one of the most smoothly articulated accounts I have ever heard of this well-loved work. In the opening movement, marked Allegro vivace, the blend of the strings is ideal, especially in the pianissimo passages, when they are virtually muted. The tone of Tetzlaff’s violin at this moment is indescribably beautiful.
Frank Peter Zimmermann & Martin Helmchen - Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 8 - 10 (2021)

Frank Peter Zimmermann & Martin Helmchen - Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 8 - 10 (2021)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 324 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 187 Mb | Digital booklet | 01:18:55
Classical | Label: BIS

Previous instalments of the Beethoven sonata cycle from Frank Peter Zimmermann and Martin Helmchen have met with wide acclaim. Described as ‘conversations by a perfect instrumental pairing’ in BBC Music Magazine, the discs have received a Choc in Classica and the recommendation of German website klassik.com, respectively. This the third and final volume brings together Beethoven's last three works in the genre, composed between 1801 and 1812. The centre-piece is the ninth sonata, the famed ‘Kreutzer Sonata’. The title page of the first edition described the sonata as ‘written in a highly concertante style’ and it does indeed surpass everything that had previously been written in the genre, in terms of scale as well as technical and compositional complexity.
Frank Peter Zimmermann & Martin Helmchen - Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 5-7 (2021)

Frank Peter Zimmermann & Martin Helmchen - Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos. 5-7 (2021)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 280 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 157 Mb | Digital booklet | 01:08:15
Classical | Label: BIS

2020 saw the release of the first instalment in this three-disc traversal of Beethoven’s violin sonatas – a disc which has garnered distinctions such as Choc de Classica and Cum Laude (Luister), with performances that ‘wed classical verve to a profoundly Romantic spirit’ (Gramophone) in ‘recordings that are conversations by a perfect instrumental pairing’ (BBC Music Magazine).
Martin Helmchen, Marc Albrecht - Schumann & Dvorak Piano Concertos (2009) SACD ISO

Martin Helmchen, Marc Albrecht - Schumann & Dvorak Piano Concertos (2009)
SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & DST64 5.1 >1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Booklet included | 70:52 min | 3,38 Gb
Genre: Classical / Label: PentaTone

This disc is a direct competitor to Schumann, Dvorak: Piano Concertos - Paolo Giacometti and in even in terms of artists employed they are comparable: both have young and up-coming pianists accompanied by less familiar orchestral/conductor partnerships. In the end, this release is more succesfully artistically, honours split with regard to sonics. Whilst there is little competition for the Dvorak (although what exists is heavyweight), the same cannot be said of the Schumann concerto (even on SACD) and Helmchen has many illustrious names to compete against.
Martin Helmchen, Andrew Manze & Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin - Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 & Triple Concerto (2020)

Martin Helmchen, Andrew Manze & Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin - Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 & Triple Concerto (2020)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 275 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 167 Mb | Digital booklet | 01:10:00
Classical | Label: Alpha Classics, Outhere Music

German pianist Martin Helmchen continues his journey through Beethoven’s piano concertos with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and Andrew Manze. In the Third Concerto, published in 1804, Beethoven seems to be moving away from the Mozartian model and inaugurates his ‘middle period’, using the minor mode to depict a distress and heartache that are certainly not unconnected with the famous ‘Heiligenstadt Testament’, which he wrote in 1802 to record his growing deafness. Martin Helmchen is joined by two partners with whom he performs a great deal of chamber music - violinist Antje Weithaas and cellist Marie- Elisabeth Hecker - to record the Triple Concerto, also written during the composer’s so-called ‘heroic’ period.
Martin Helmchen, Andrew Manze, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin - Beethoven: Piano Concertos 2 & 5 (2019)

Martin Helmchen, Andrew Manze, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin - Beethoven: Piano Concertos 2 & 5 (2019)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 262 Mb | Total time: 66:25 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Alpha ‎| ALPHA 555 | Recorded: 2019

As the celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethovens birth approaches, and following a much-admired version of the Diabelli Variations (Alpha 386 Gramophone Editors Choice), Martin Helmchen has decided to record his complete piano concertos in the company of musical partners with whom he has a special affinity, Andrew Manze and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. They devote this first volume to the Concertos nos. 2 and 5, giving lovingly polished performances of these two masterpieces of the piano repertory. Composed even before Concerto no. 1, the Second Concerto was premiered in Vienna in 1795, when Beethoven was only twenty-five years old, but underwent several revisions before being published in its final version in 1801.
Frank Peter Zimmermann, Martin Helmchen - Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos.8-10 (2021)

Frank Peter Zimmermann, Martin Helmchen - Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos.8-10 (2021)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 348 Mb | Total time: 79:13 | Scans included
Classical | Label: BIS | # BIS-SACD-2537 | Recorded: 2020

Previous instalments of the Beethoven sonata cycle from Frank Peter Zimmermann and Martin Helmchen have met with wide acclaim. Described as ‘conversations by a perfect instrumental pairing’ in BBC Music Magazine, the discs have received a Choc in Classica and the recommendation of German website klassik.com, respectively. This the third and final volume brings together Beethoven's last three works in the genre, composed between 1801 and 1812. The centre-piece is the ninth sonata, the famed ‘Kreutzer Sonata’. The title page of the first edition described the sonata as ‘written in a highly concertante style’ and it does indeed surpass everything that had previously been written in the genre, in terms of scale as well as technical and compositional complexity.
Frank Peter Zimmermann, Martin Helmchen - Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos.5-7 (2021)

Frank Peter Zimmermann, Martin Helmchen - Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos.5-7 (2021)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 305 Mb | Total time: 68:32 | Scans included
Classical | Label: BIS | # BIS-SACD-2527 | Recorded: 2020

2020 saw the release of the first instalment in this three-disc traversal of Beethoven’s violin sonatas – a disc which has garnered distinctions such as Choc de Classica and Cum Laude (Luister), with performances that ‘wed classical verve to a profoundly Romantic spirit’ (Gramophone) in ‘recordings that are conversations by a perfect instrumental pairing’ (BBC Music Magazine). As Frank Peter Zimmermann and Martin Helmchen open the second disc, they do so with the iconic Spring Sonata, Op. 24. Completed in 1801, the work proved immediately popular with a second edition appearing only months after the first publication.