With this LP, IBA is beginning to release a new series of live concert recordings from the immense sound/video archive of Idil Biret from the 1950s to 2020. On the first LP, Schumann's Fantasie Op. 17 from the New York concert at Alice Tully Hall in 1972 and Liszt's Sonata in B minor from the Paris concert at Salle Gaveau in 1978 are included. These two performances of the works were significant milestones in Biret's concert career, opening up to her the stages of the Soviet Union and East Germany.

Idil Biret's first concerto recording

Idil Biret who arrived in Paris at the age of seven and a half, unable to read music but playing Mozart's C major concerto as she will never play better. It was played by a great artist who happened to be a little girl who could not read music. One played her a piece of music once or twice and she knew it all. (Nadia Boulanger, Paris 1973)

With Pierre Boulez's 2nd Piano Sonata Idil Biret not only makes her American recording debut, but also presents the first U.S. recording of this important contemporary work. Composed in 1948, this sonata occupies a position that exerted a causative influence upon Boulez's subsequent music. It's experimental and ground-breaking nature may be better understood if one regards it as having grown out of a response to Webern's Variations (1936), the companion piece on this album. The rigid, geometric patterns of Webern's work, the classical purity of it's encompassing organization, seems to have served as a base of departure for Boulez's broadened structures that are equally rigid but incomparably more complex. It is this very complexity that conceals the strict framework of the entire composition and projects it as the product of an ardent improvisatory impetus. It demands from it's interpreter a similar approach, along with technical prowess and intellectual control of the highest order. It was only a matter of course that this work, together with influences emanating from other sources (chiefly John Cage), should lead the path not only to open-form and aleatory compositions, including Boulez's own 3rd Piano Sonata, but also, through it's new pianistic language, urge the development of a whole new generation of virtuoso pianists. (Ilhan Mimaroglu, 1973)

This LP is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Ersin Onay, the Dean of the Music Faculty of Bilkent University who organised the Ravel Concertos performances of Idil Biret with maestro Jean Fournet in the 1990s

After listening for a while (to orchestral music on the radio) Idil would detect the main melody and then play it on the piano with one finger. Afterwards, when she reached the age of four, she would play these with two hands and with the correct harmony. Bach preludes and fugues from the Well Tempered Clavier, for example, which even the talented musicians took considerable time to study and memorise, were mastered by Idil in only a few days after listening once or twice, after which she would play these without a single wrong note. (Leman Biret, 1988)

Bach published during his lifetime four volumes of keyboard pieces under the title Clavierubung which began with a set of six Partitas, published between 1726 and 1731. The first of the set was the Partita No. 1 in B flat major. The Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor, was apparently written during Bach's time at Cothen, probably about 1720, and revised in Leipzig about 1730. The six English Suites, the 3rd being included here, have nothing particularly English about them, except their title. They were written perhaps in Weimar in about 1715 or possibly during Bach's period at Cothen. Bach brought together a set of five French Suites, of which the 5th is Biret's favourite, later augmented to six and forming part of the Clavierbuchlein for Anna Magdalena, his second wife. The Italian Concerto in F major was published in 1735 in the second volume of the Clavierubungen, with the original title Concerto nach Italienischen Gusto. It reflects the style of the Venetian solo concertos by Vivaldi.

The centerpiece of the Bach collection is a 2015 recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier, the so- called old testament of piano music, a series of 48 preludes and fugues in all of the piano's possible keys. A look at that monumental collection's recorded history could serve as a compendium of piano performance styles through the last 120 years. Unsurprisingly, Biret conforms to none, and perhaps the best way to describe her interpretations is orchestral. As the historically informed Baroque practitioners prescribe, each prelude and fugue certainly has a distinct character, but those long lines emerge with the definition of strings, brass or winds, lush and strident by turn. Trills are mellow and exquisitely shaped, and a wealth of detail is present but never exaggerated. Biret's Bach is a cliff wall to be scaled, a peak to be reached and an aspiration to be achieved.

Idil Biret was introduced very early to the music of Bach. At the age of three she was trying to play from ear the preludes of Bach from the Well Tempered Clavier which her mother played on their upright piano and drawing his picture in her note book. In her memoires, Idil's mother Leman Biret writes: "After listening for a while to orchestral music on the radio Idil would detect the main melody and then play it on the piano with one finger. Afterwards, when she reached the age of four, she would play these on the piano with two hands and with the correct harmony. Bach preludes and fugues from the Well Tempered Clavier, for example, which even the talented musicians took considerable time to study and memorise, were mastered by Idil in only a few days after listening once or twice, after which she would play these without a single wrong note. "Then, at the age of four her teacher Mithat Fenmen played for Idil on an 78rpm record by Edwin Fischer the Prelude and Fugue in F minor from the Well Tempered Clavier Book II. She says that Bach's music has been a part of her life ever since that day. In 1946, at the age of five, she played the D Minor Piano Concerto of Bach with a string quartet at the Ankara Radio, a work that would be a staple of her concert programs from then on. "The remarkable evening began with D Minor Piano Concerto of J.S. Bach. The concerto required, from the very first measure, agile, precise dexterity from the pianist. Idil Biret took the challenge with a ravishing pulse which carried one away. How this artist combines the strict discipline of the score with the capacity to build sovereign forms is exemplary. Energetically, she drove the flanking Allegro movements forward and dwelled on the song like beauties of the Adagio with concentrated abandon." Dietrich Wolf DRESDNER NEUESTE NACHRICHTEN (Germany) 1996

“All the works [on this LP] require a pianist of true class, because each of them presents challenges demanding something quite different from traditional technique. It has to be said that the young Idil Biret exceeds all expectations. This Turkish artist appeared in Brussels (1959) at the tender age of eighteen. Her virtuosity is astonishing, encompassing clarity, rhythmical rigour, precision and strength or delicacy, as required. She can play at great speed and maintain runs of impeccable luminosity. Her flexible touch conjures a thousand surprising effects; some notes and chords explode like whip-cracks, while others caress the keys, and there is an extraordinary purity to her polyphonic playing. In the hands of an artist of such superior qualities, the very particular characteristics of both Bartók's and Prokofiev’s piano writing are brought out to the full. Taking into account her passionate vitality and lively musical intelligence as well, I believe her talent offers more than enough to be met not simply with satisfaction but with genuine enthusiasm.”

Igor Stravinsky' Three Movements from Petrouchka is a musically challenging and unusually difficult score which has to intimidate any pianist in his right mind.

In November 1949, at age eight, Idil Biret entered the studios of ORTF in Paris and made her first recordings. + In the following decades she made over eighty LPs and CDs – released on ten record labels – and many additional recordings for radio and television around the world. + These included the complete piano works of Brahms, Chopin and Rachmaninov, as well as the Etudes of Ligeti. + The Idil Biret Archive (IBA) is bringing together and issuing as many of her recordings as possible on both CD and digitally. + The IBA is distributed worldwide by Naxos.

Idil Biret' new Liszt album prompts a reappraisal of her extraordinary talent... in her Liszt Sonata... you will hear playing of a formidable power and assurance... There is no mistaking her lightning reflexes in the second of the Paganini Etudes and her vi. 747313128778 IBRA8571287.2 16136342 .00 14.99 .19 IDIL BIRET ARCHIVE COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 11/15/2011 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/0/4/2/8/1908240.jpg 28 1 N MARTIN,CLAIRE / WHEN LIGHTS ARE LOW WHEN LIGHTS ARE LOW 691062039222 LINN392.2 16136441 .00 20.99 .20 LINN RECORDS COMPACT DISCS POP JAZZ 11/15/2011 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/7/5/2/8/1908257.jpg 23 1 N MATTHEWS / VANDEWALLE PRELUDES & BAGATELLES 670541841228 RAVL7819.2 16183216 .00 13.99 .14 RAVELLO COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 11/15/2011 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/8/5/2/8/1908258.jpg 11 1 N SOLLSCHER,GORAN GORAN SOLLSCHER 7391782215144 CRE21514.2 01991246 .00 20.99 .23 CAPRICE COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 11/19/1996 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/0/5/0/5/1465050.jpg 2 1 N ELLINGTON,DUKE / BABS,ALICE IN SWEDEN 1973 7391782215991 CRE21599.2 06473136 .00 20.99 .24 CAPRICE COMPACT DISCS POP JAZZ 08/24/1999 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/4/5/0/5/1465054.jpg 2 1 N MITCHELL,RED HOME SUITE 7391782213133 CRE21313.2 01990065 .00 20.99 .25 CAPRICE COMPACT DISCS POP JAZZ 09/27/1994 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/5/8/0/5/1465085.jpg 0 1 N RIEDEL,GEORG / ALFREDSON,HANS / DAHLGREN,EVA NU SJUNGER NAKTERGALEN 7391782213560 CRE21356.2 01990232 .00 20.99 .21 CAPRICE COMPACT DISCS POP INT'L & WORLD MUSIC CHILDRENS 01/24/1995 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/6/8/0/5/1465086.jpg 7 1 N RIEDEL,GEORG / JANSON,CLAES / WILLEMARK,LENA LILLA UNGEN MIN 7391782214109 CRE21410.2 01990577 .00 20.99 .21 CAPRICE COMPACT DISCS POP INT'L & WORLD MUSIC CHILDRENS 01/24/1995 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/8/8/0/5/1465088.jpg 15 1 N BRUMEL / HUELGAS ENSEMBLE / VAN NEVEL MISSA ET ECCE TERRAE MOTUS / SEQUENTIA 8718247710928 NWTC8802092.2 16182745 .00 12.99 .22 NEWTON CLASSICS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 11/15/2011 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/4/8/1/8/1908184.jpg 0 1 N BEETHOVEN / NEW ZEALAND PIANO QUARTET PIANO QUARTETS From the pen of the fifteen-year-old Beethoven, these three piano quartets are among the earliest examples of a chamber music genre that would not reach full maturity until the time of Brahms. 747313099870 NXS8570998.2 14433184 .00 19.99 .23 NAXOS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 05/26/2009 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/1/9/9/2/1512991.jpg 3 1 N ADAM / COJOCARU / KOBBORG / NUNEZ / PETIPA GISELLE Alina Cojocatu, Johan Kobborg, Marianela Nunez, and Martin Harvey perform in this Royal Ballet production of the Adam ballet conducted by Boris Gruzin. 809478070306 BOPU7030BR 14471902 .00 39.99 .25 BBC / OPUS ARTE BLU-RAY CLASSICAL OPERA / OPERETTA / ORATORIO 05/26/2009 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/1/7/0/3/1513071.jpg 0 1 N VIVALDI / DEUTER / HARMONIE UNIVERSELLE VIOLIN CONCERTOS 3760107400154 ELOQ815.2 13784300 .00 29.99 .20 ELOQUENTIA FRANCE COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 08/12/2008 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/5/4/2/1/1381245.jpg 3 2 N FREITAS / RTE NAT'L SO / CASSUTO SYMPHONY NO. 1 / SUITE ALENTEJANA Luis de Freitas Branco was a pre-eminent figure in Portuguese music of the first half of the twentieth century. This first disc of a four volume series of Freitas Branco' orchestral works features the First Symphony in which the influence of Cesar Franc. 747313076574 NXS8570765.2 13802110 .00 19.99 .22 NAXOS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 07/29/2008 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/4/1/2/9/1379214.jpg 16 1 N HAYDN / BABANOV / SCHUSTER / DASKALAKIS TRUMPET CONCERTO / HORN CONCERTO NO. 1 Haydn' popular Trumpet Concerto is best known for it's thrilling first movement cadenza and brilliant and inventive Rondo finale. The Horn Concerto No. 1 is also notable for the technical demands made on the soloist, not least the large octave leaps. 747313048274 NXS8570482.2 13787165 .00 19.99 .20 NAXOS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 07/29/2008 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/0/2/2/9/1379220.jpg 3 1 N IRELAND / LENEHAN PIANO WORKS 3 John Ireland' piano music, some of the most appealing British piano music of the twentieth century, reflects the composer' many interests: his love of literature, his interest in paganism and Celtic mysticism. 747313046171 NXS8570461.2 13786939 .00 19.99 .20 NAXOS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 07/29/2008 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/4/2/2/9/1379224.jpg 104 1 N BELLINI / CORELLI / NERI / CALLAS / SANTINI NORMA: ACT 1 8014399501514 MYT151.2 13699697 .00 10.99 .21 MYTO RECORDS ITALY COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL OPERA / OPERETTA / ORATORIO 06/24/2008 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/9/3/4/9/1379439.jpg 5 1 N SMETANA / BEETHOVEN / ANCERL MA VLAST (MY COUNTRY) / VIOLIN CTO IN D MAJOR The recording of the opening concert of Prague Spring 1968 captures conductor Karel Ancerl's performance of Smetana's My Country with the Czech Philharmonic. 099925701598 SPP7015DVD 13688196 .00 33.99 .27 SUPRAPHON DIGITAL VIDEO DISC CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 06/24/2008 07/29/2024 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/9/1/7/4/1374719.jpg 3 1 N BELLOMY,DAN BACK TO BROOKLYN 021475011087 CMB1108.2 06410759 .00 18.99 .20 CAMBRIA RECORDS COMPACT DISCS POP JAZZ 06/29/1999 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/8/6/4/2/1552468.jpg 0 N KING'S SINGERS COLLECTION / VARIOUS KING'S SINGERS COLLECTION / VARIOUS 635212012024 SGUK120.2 13688608 .00 58.99 1.11 SIGNUM CLASSICS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC V/A COMPILATIONS 06/24/2008 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/2/3/7/4/1374732.jpg 14 5 Y EWAZEN / TELEMANN / DOPPLER / MULLER / BACH SOUVENIRS: CHAMBER MUSIC HORN FLUTE & PIANO Souvenirs: Chamber Music for Horn, Flute and Piano by Peter Green 044747294421 CAV2944.2 13696504 .00 18.99 .18 CENTAUR COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 06/24/2008 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/5/5/7/4/1374755.jpg 5 1 N WOLF-FERRARI / RODRIGUES / RLPO / PETRENKO SUSANNA'S SECRET 822252219326 AVIE2193.2 15133885 .00 19.99 .34 AVIE COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 08/10/2010 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/1/2/6/4/1674621.jpg 8 1 N MY FIRST MOZART ALBUM / VARIOUS MY FIRST MOZART ALBUM / VARIOUS If you listen carefully to this CD, you will get to know one of the best composers in the world. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived 250 years ago but he carries on being famous-so he must have been special. He giggled a lot. 747313820474 NXS8578204.2 16182974 .00 19.99 .21 NAXOS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC V/A COMPILATIONS 11/15/2011 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/0/7/2/8/1908270.jpg 0 1 N HAAS / ENSEMBLE COSMEDIN ANIMA MEA: SACRED MUSIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES Anima mea explores the Christian concept of the soul through these masterpieces of medieval Sacred Music. Hildegard of Bingen' beautifully exalted harmonies represent God' order in the music of the spheres. 747313263271 NXS8572632.2 16182882 .00 19.99 .23 NAXOS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 11/15/2011 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/3/3/3/8/1908333.jpg 0 1 N WAGNER / YOUNG / PHILHARMONIKER HAMBURG / POLASKI GOTTERDAMMERUNG 4260034869288 OEHM928.2 16183056 .00 47.99 .77 OEHMS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 11/15/2011 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/0/5/3/8/1908350.jpg 5 4 Y WETZ / ZUMBUELT / DOMBERGCHOR ERFURT CHRISTMAS ORATORIO 53 761203763825 CPO777638.2 16136182 .00 18.99 .25 CPO RECORDS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHRISTMAS / CHANUKKAH 11/15/2011 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/0/6/3/8/1908360.jpg 19 1 N PORTSMOUTH CHAMBER CHOIR / BEAMISH / MOLDOVEANU SONG MORE SILENT 822252214727 AVIE2147.2 14159244 .00 19.99 .16 AVIE COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHILDRENS 11/25/2008 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/8/7/2/3/1443278.jpg 12 1 N PLACE / HICKEY / LINELL MUSIC FOR SHAKESPEARE'S THEATRE Music played an important role in the Renaissance theatre and Shakespeare brought new subtlety to it's use. In a theatre without lights and sets, it fell to music to underline mood, whether for magic, comedy, feasting or pathos. 747313070879 NXS8570708.2 20566654 .00 19.99 .21 NAXOS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 04/29/2008 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/4/2/5/2/1482524.jpg 3 1 N KORNGOLD / STRAUSS / PRAGUE SYM ORCH / KOUT CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN & ORCHESTRA 099925396220 SPP3962.2 14737381 .00 14.99 .20 SUPRAPHON COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 10/27/2009 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/1/5/4/1/1571451.jpg 2 1 N KOVACS / DONATONI / BASSETT / KOMIVES / HARTIG CHALUMEAU 044747296524 CAV2965.2 14737640 .00 18.99 .20 CENTAUR COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 10/27/2009 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/a/500/2/6/4/1/1571462.jpg 13 1 N VIVALDI / MCMURTRY / HUHTANEN / MCLEOD / MALLON SACRED MUSIC -MAGNIFICAT 3 / NISI DOMINUS Vivaldi' sacred music occupies a place of honour in his vast output, dovetailing passages of great tenderness and sombre beauty, rich in cantabile expressiveness, with highly operatic movements of colourful and exciting virtuosity. 747313044573 NXS8570445.2 13956387 .00 19.99 .25 NAXOS COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL CHAMBER MUSIC & RECITALS 09/30/2008 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/c/500/8/4/8/1/1411848.jpg 33 1 N HAYDN / OELZE / WEIR / LIKA / NORRINGTON / COE CREATION HOBXXI:2 881488707458 PROL7074.2 13959890 .00 24.99 .25 PROFIL - G HAENSSLER COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL ORCHESTRAL & SYMPHONIC 09/30/2008 https://media.aent-m.com/graphics/items/sdimages/b/500/4/5/8/1/1411854.jpg 7 2 N CLASSICAL DREAMS / VARIOUS CLASSICAL DREAMS / VARIOUS 881488806557 PROL8065.2 13960827 .00 54.99 .25 PROFIL - G HAENSSLER COMPACT DISCS CLASSICAL V/A COMPILATIONS 09/30/2008 https://mediacdn.aent-m.com/prod-img/500/38/1308038.jpg 9 3 N RAVEL / SAINT-SAENS / FOURNET / BILKENT SO / BIRET IDIL BIRET RAVEL EDITION 3 - PIANO CONCERTOS The Turkish pianist Idil Biret was one of the greatest child prodigies of the 20th century. Her recital at the Boston Conservatory demonstrated that she is no less prodigious today. She played a long and demanding program with the power, concentration.

Schonberg, insisting on the legitimate interest that attaches to every aspect of the life and person of a great man, once said he would have liked to see how Mahler tied his tie.

Biret grasps the size of Beethoven' style. The polyphony is laid out in a relaxed way with little indulgence in point making. She keeps the big line and yet is thankfully sparing in her use of fortissimos. The piano tone is sumptuous.