Shostakovich’s energetic piano concertos feature striking and attractive themes, with sudden changes of mood between the burlesque and haunting, perfectly captured in these live recordings with pianist Martin Helmchen and the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski.

The Piano Quintet displays perhaps an even greater range of styles within a work of unusual purity written under the looming shadow of war.

Martin Helmchen is a former member of the BBC New Generation Artist Scheme (2005-2007) and was the 2001 winner of the Clara Haskill Competition.

‘Jurowski and the LPO provided a spot-on accompaniment for Martin Helmchen in Shostakovich’s light-hearted Second Piano Concerto. Launched by perky woodwinds…Helmchen gave a delightfully unaffected, affectionate, and note-perfect, performance… There was a real fizz to the outer movements… the slow movement…rapt, nocturnal and magical, enough to melt the hardest of hearts.’ - Classical Source, 2009

- Piano Concerto No.1
Recorded live at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, London, on 23 April 2008

- Piano Concerto No.2
Recorded live at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, London, on 25 April 2009