The piano concertos

"These are eminently musical readings of Mendelssohn's works ... the Saarbrücken RSO, however, sound slightly too hefty for this music to dance and whirl as it should ... Temperamentally, Schirmer seems more attuned to the First Concerto, than the damatic rhetoric of the darker Second".

"Vurdering: G (Gramophone recommends)" - "Playing that dazzles but that also brings notable depth to this music ... Helmchen finds time to sculpt phrase-ednings without any loss of momentum, heightening the drama in the process".

"It is a less convincing work, but when it is played with Helmchen's grace and bravura, and infectious sense of enjoyment himself, there is nothing wrong with relishing the sweetness of the fruit".