The two-piano repertoire is not extensive, so three big new works will be welcome to performers and devotees of the genre alike. Danish composer Kim Helweg (b. 1956) is a name previously unfamiliar to me; his style is eclectic, ranging from Lisztian bravura to an improvisatory freedom learned from jazz (reflecting his period of writing jazz and rock, 1977-87). Although Helweg makes use of atonality and serialism, the works here are all tonally based, with resonances of the music of the 1920s in both their popular and classical models (of the latter, Hindemith, Stravinsky and the Bartok of the Sonata for two pianos and percussion come most often to mind).
The Variations on Chick Corea’s “La Fiesta” dates from 1991, after Helweg’s return to the classical fold. An exciting, barnstorming piece, I can well imagine it bringing the house down in the recital room. Altogether darker in conception is Blue Edge (1994-5), in which ‘pop’ elements – the blues, especially – are ultimately drowned in an atonal maelstrom. The double concerto, Dvojnik (“Doppelganger”, 1993-5) was inspired by a Dostoevsky story of a man overcome by his double. The binary principle governs all essentials of the music, structured as a pair of contrasted concertos – each with its own prelude for pianos alone – based on two polarized (tonal-atonal themes). Helweg’s own voice in all this may be hard to discern, but there is no denying the verve of the writing, nor indeed the tremendous advocacy it receives here.'