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.

This newest release from the Naxos Idil Biret archive features the works of Claude Debussy. "For well versed insiders of music, Idil Biret is since years a trusted, respected and beloved artist... The discipline of her powerful grasp and approach of the music has led, especially for works of our century, to a stylistic congruence between the written score and the interpretation...(that) makes us all aware of an outstanding artistic potency of the highest standards of excellence!" (DIE WELT, Germany 1979) "Idil Biret takes the opening movement of Debussy's Children's Corner very briskly and impetuously, but the performance then settles down and is sensitive and well characterized, especially the closing Golliwog's Cakewalk. Good recording and recommendable couplings too." (PENGUIN GUIDE, England 2009) "There is no question whatever that Biret's reading of the Ravel Gaspard de la nuit takes it's place among the most delicately wrought Ravel interpretations by any of the many great pianists renowned for their performances of French piano music." (SOHO WEEKLY NEWS, USA 1977)

As she demonstrated yesterday, the Turkish pianist Idil Biret must rank as a virtuoso. With unflagging energy she produced a series of supercharged performances.

One notable aspect of the concert was the appearance on the podium of each composer in turn to conduct his own work: Messrs Cemal Resit Rey, Ulvi Cemal Erkin and Ahmet Adnan Saygun all took the helm with great aplomb � The pianist, Miss Idil Biret, barely 17 years old, proved herself to be a musician of remarkable personality, performing Adnan Saygun�s Piano Concerto No. 1 with great poise, lyrical eloquence and impressive technical mastery. The concerto itself is an attractive and imposing piece, with its clearly etched character, dramatic accents and originality of musical idiom. This powerful, tumultuous work-in which the piano is by no means treated with kid gloves, but rather pitted against the orchestra-deserves to become widely known. Miss Biret received a warm and enthusiastic ovation.

The most exciting young pianist to come to Montreal in years. She has a personal magnetism that belongs only to a certain type of virtuoso performer, one who succeeds in hypnotizing you no matter how what he or she is playing... Miss Biret is one of the finest natural Schumann players I have ever come across. In fact I cannot recall ever hearing a better all round performance of Schumann's Fantasiestecke in any concert hall in this city.' THE MONTREAL STAR - Canada 1960 "'Idil Biret deservedly belongs among the most important leading musicians on the Naxos label. Her Chopin can be recognized blindfold after a few notes... I regard her Schumann-Debussy-Tchaikovsky disc (8.550885) as a real jewel. Schumann's Childhood Dreams (Kinderszenen) are seen through the eyes of an adult. Biret's Debussy is full of sensitivity and intimate feeling.' KLASSIK FORUM - Germany 'The Idil Biret Solo Edition, featuring recent rather than historical performances by the Turkish pianist, is turning out to be a truly exceptional experience. The IBA (Idil Biret Archive) label has been releasing a flood of Biret recordings in it's 'Beethoven','Concerto' and 'Archive' series, but the 'Solo Edition' recordings are in some ways the most impressive of all... Biret is fully involved in the music (of Schumann), highly expressive as well as totally in command of her instrument, and the result is two discs filled with excellence from start to finish.' INFODAD Reviews - USA 2013.

Idil Biret first made a professional recording in 1959 performing works by Brahms and Schumann. That moment led to a 75-year recording career, now collected in an enormous superset. These critically-acclaimed recordings won many awards, including the Grand Prix du Disque Frederic Chopin and Diapason d'Or. This set contains more than sixty works for piano and orchestra including all the major works as well as many concertos of Johann Sebastian Bach, Bartok, Prokofiev, Saygun, Schoenberg, Shostakovich and others. The complete solo piano works of Brahms, Chopin and Rachmaninoff are in the set as well as all the 32 Piano Sonatas by Beethoven, the 48 Preludes and Fugues of Johann Sebastian Bach and all the major solo works of Schumann and Liszt. There are many piano transcriptions by Liszt including Beethoven's nine symphonies, Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy, as well as Brahms' Third and Fourth Symphonies that Biret transcribed herself. This 'superset' commemorates both Idil Biret's 75th anniversary and her epic career on the concert stage over the last 70 years.

Biret's interpretations of Schumann set her apart from the Pollinis, Brendels and Arraus of this world, and even from her teacher and long-time mentor Wilhelm Kempff. Leverkusener Anzeiger Schumann's Piano Concerto had a fascinating rendering by the admirable Turk Idil Biret which must be very close to that of the very first performance of the concerto by Clara Schumann. Reutlingen General- Anzeiger The recordings Idil Biret made in 2012 of Schumann's Kreisleriana, Blumenst�ck and Carnival de Vienne show the pianist in her best form Truly Schumannesque. Piano News.

Idil Biret was introduced to Rachmaninov as a composer and performer at an early age in Instanbul by an uncle. She greatly admired his performance style and compositions and felt an immediate affinity to him. It was an encounter with the great Emil Gilels at the home of Nadia Boulanger in 1957 which led to her career in Russia where she often played Rachmaninov’s works. After hearing Biret play for him in Paris, Gilels asked Biret if she would like to perform in the USSR. She gladly said “yes” and soon an invitation came for an eight concert two week tour there in 1960 when she was only nineteen years old. After her first recital in Moscow, Goskonzert extended the tour to one month and added eight more concerts to make a total of sixteen. Biret made many more tours in the Soviet Union afterwards playing around 100 concerts there over the years. This release features Biret performing Rachmaninov’s complete solo piano music, as well as his piano concertos.

“Listening to Beethoven through Liszt’s keyboard transcriptions can put a fresh perspective on these familiar symphonies. Idil Biret has taken on the complete cycle, and I admire her taste, technique and sound musical decisions.”
— New York Magazine

“Biret’s performance of the 8th Symphony (in Milan) succeeded in the sustained tension; the prominence of logic in building up the colours; the autonomy as well as the interplay of the parts…Biret conquers by dominating the whole, with an implacable left hand in the Allegretto or with lightliness in the fury of Allegro vivace.”
— Corriera Della Serra (Italy)

“Idil Biret not only recorded all nine of the Beethoven symphonies in less than a year but, in a superhuman feat which astounded all those who know about music, she also publicly performed all of them in four recitals at the Montpellier festival in France. To learn and also memorise scores of such length and difficulty in such a short time is a mind-boggling achievement.”
— Fonoforum Germany

“From the outset of the 1st Symphony one feels that Idil Biret grasps the size of Beethoven’s 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 o fortissimos. The piano tone is sumptuous. Biret’s gentle and almost sensuous sonorities are really captivating. One is reminded that her mentor has been Wilhelm Kempff.”
— Gramophone (UK)

“A supreme mastery of tempi, sonorities, polyphony and of course technique permits Biret to embrace all the moods of the great Beethoven and gives her playing a symphonic depth rarely heard until now.”
— Le Nouvel Observateur (France)

“We are in the presence of one of the greatest virtuosos of our time. I do not see in her generation any other pianist who possesses an equal mastery of the keyboard, in the service of such a mature mind so rich in imagination.”
— Marc Pincherle Nouvelles Litteraires, France 1959

“No doubt remained as soon as the piano began to reverberate: on the stage was a first class musician and a maestro. A complete freedom went hand in hand with Idil Biret’s interpretations. One has the feeling that she plays as easily as she breathes. With an extraordinary plasticity, she moulds each musical phrase like wax with her fingers. But, the freedom in Miss Biret’s interpretation is not accidental. Her attitude towards the works she is playing is the result of meditation. The art of Idil Biret gives joy and emotion.”
– D. Blagoy SOVIETSKAIA KULTURA – USSR 1960

“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.”
– Jacques Stehman, LA REVUE DES DISQUES (Belgium) 1962

“This is the most successful direct-to-disc piano recording I have heard. Having an artist as sensitive and accomplished as Idil Biret at the keyboard is an enormous help. Her fluency seems limitless and her ability to control, even at the softest dynamics, is all too rare these days…Hers is a bona fide virtuoso rendition.”
– HIGH FIDELITY – USA 1977

“A supreme mastery of tempi, sonorities, polyphony and of course technique permits Biret to embrace all the moods of the great Beethoven and gives her playing a symphonic depth rarely heard until now.”
— Le Nouvel Observateur (France) / H-L de la Grange

“The performances here truly represent a lifetime of musical thinking and are essential for serious Beethovenians.”
— All Music Guide (USA) / James Mannheim

“Love of Beethoven’s works threads through Biret’s life like a red ribbon. Her studio recordings and live concerts show this in an unequivocal language…Next to the Piano Concertos, the Triple Concerto and the Choral Fantasy she has also recorded and performed on stage all the Piano Sonatas and Symphony Transcriptions becoming perhaps the only artist to reach this level of completeness…This knowledge of Beethoven one hears in every nuance in Idil Biret’s playing.”
— Piano News (Germany) / Carsten Dürer

“From the outset of the 1st Symphony one feels that Idil Biret grasps the size of Beethoven’s style. The polyphony is laid out in a relaxed way with little indulgence in point-making. She keeps her big line, and yet is thankfully sparing in her use of fortissimos…The piano tone is sumptuous. Biret’s gentle and almost sensuous sonorities are really captivating…This is a remarkable achievement.”
— Gramophone (UK) / J. Methuen-Campbell

“Biret’s concertos are quite classical in approach. Her articulation is crisp and wonderfully clear, rhythm is firmly controlled, and extremes are avoided. As a result the playing is never pushed, either by excessive speed or wide dynamics. The moderate tempos allow lots of detail to come through, and we find once again the elegance and beauty of Beethoven.The Bilkent Symphony, in Antoni Wit’s hands, plays musically, with a fine sense of style.”
— American Record Guide / Paul L Althouse

“Idil Biret not only recorded all nine of the Beethoven symphonies in less than a year but, in a superhuman feat which astounded all those who know about music, she also publicly performed all of them in four recitals at the Montpellier festival in France. To learn and also memorise scores of such length and difficulty in such a short time is a mind-bogglingachievement.”
— Fonoforum (Germany) / Peter Cossé

In November 1949, at the age of eight, Idil Biret entered the studios of ORTF (Radiodiffusion Television Francaise) in Paris and made her first recordings; these were works by Couperin, Bach, Beethoven and Debussy. In the following decades she made nearly 100 albums, released on ten record labels (Pretoria, Vega, Decca, Atlantic/Finnadar, Pantheon, EMI, Naxos, Marco Polo, Alpha, BMP) and many recordings for radio and television stations around the world. These included the complete piano works of Brahms, Chopin and Rachmaninov as well as the Sonatas of Boulez and the Etudes of Ligeti. The Idil Biret Archive (IBA) is now bringing together her past and present recording; as the copyrights are obtained, old recordings no longer available commercially are being released together with her new recordings. The present volume presents Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations.

In November 1949, at the age of eight, Idil Biret entered the studios of ORTF (Radiodiffusion Television Francaise) in Paris and made her first recordings; these were works by Couperin, Bach, Beethoven and Debussy. In the following decades she made nearly 100 LPs and CDs, released on ten record labels (Pretoria, Vega, Decca, Atlantic/Finnadar, Pantheon, EMI, Naxos, Marco Polo, Alpha, BMP) and many recordings for radio and television stations around the world. These included the complete piano works of Brahms, Chopin and Rachmaninov as well as the Sonatas of Boulez and the Etudes of Ligeti. The Idil Biret Archive (IBA) is now bringing together her past and present recording; as the copyrights are obtained, old recordings no longer available commercially are being released together with her new recordings. The transcriptions by Liszt of Beethoven's Symphonies, originally recorded for EMI, and the newly recorded 32 Sonatas and all the Piano Concertos of Beethoven were released by IBA and also made available in a box set. All the Piano Concertos of Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Schumann and Grieg and the nine LPs recorded for Atlantic/Finnadar in New York which include works by Boulez, Webern, Berg, Ravel and Stravinsky were also released. The present album is a showcase of Turkish Piano Music and is made up of recordings made between 1958 and 2021. IBA is distributed worldwide by Naxos.

On this release, the tenth volume in the Idil Biret Concerto Edition, Idil Biret performs W.A. Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 21 and 22 alongside the Bursa Regional State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ender Sakpinar. ‘Miss Biret was soloist in an entrancing performance of Mozart’s concerto K. 482 with the Manchester Hallé Orchestra conducted by Mlle Nadia Boulanger. The variety of her playing its finely-shaded gradations and brilliant but never mechanical figurations, revealed her as already a remarkable artist. Not for many hears has a Hallé audience heard such perfectly balanced Mozart playing... No words can describe the wondrous finale, with its mixture of gaiety and anguish. This was a performance in which every note counted for its full value.’ (DAILY TELEGRAPH (UK) 1963) ‘I recently returned from a five week conducting tour...In Turkey Idil Biret was my soloist in a Mozart Concerto (K. 595). What a fine artist she is.’ (From a letter of AARON COPLAND to Mlle Nadia Boulanger (USA) 1973)

In November 1949, at the age of eight, Idil Biret entered the studios of ORTF (Radiodiffusion Television Francaise) in Paris and made her first recordings; these were works by Couperin, Bach, Beethoven and Debussy. In the following decades she made nearly 100 LPs and CDs, released on ten record labels (Pretoria, Vega, Decca, Atlantic/Finnadar, Pantheon, EMI, Naxos, Marco Polo, Alpha, BMP) and many recordings for radio and television stations around the world. These included the complete piano works of Brahms, Chopin and Rachmaninov as well as the Sonatas of Boulez and the Etudes of Ligeti. The Idil Biret Archive (IBA) is now bringing together her past and present recording; as the copyrights are obtained, old recordings no longer available commercially are being released together with her new recordings. The current album features showcases her interpretations of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Glazunov’s Piano Sonata No. 2, recorded in March 2017, and Balakirev’s Islamey “Oriental Fantasy,” recorded in concert at the Lille Festival 1993.