Idil Biret
Turkish pianist Idil Biret is a fixture of the Naxos catalog and its completist enterprises, having recorded the collected piano works of Chopin and Brahms for the label. Between 1994 and 2008, she recorded a cycle of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas for her own IBA (Idil Biret Archives) label. She has appeared with most of the world's major orchestras and presented recitals in many countries, with a notable high point being a complete performance of Liszt's brutally difficult transcriptions of Beethoven's nine symphonies at the 1986 Montpellier Festival in France. Studio performances of those transcriptions were recorded for EMI and released on the IBA label. Biret was, in short, one of the world's top-rank pianists, not a star whose name was familiar even to casual listeners, but a versatile performer whose capabilities were well known to enthusiasts.
Born November 21, 1941, in Ankara, Turkey, Biret was a classic child prodigy. Turks called her the Turkish Mozart, and when she was eight the financially strapped Turkish Parliament voted a special appropriation to make possible her musical education in Europe. Hypersensitive to music as a baby, she gained the ability to hear a tune and reproduce it on the piano when she was only two. She had an uncanny ability to learn music in her mind without practicing it at the keyboard, delivering it perfectly formed to the amazement of onlookers. Biret's first teacher in France was the famed pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, under whose tutelage she blazed through the curriculum at the Paris Conservatory. She took three first prizes there at 15 and began her professional career the following year. Biret later studied with German pianist Wilhelm Kempff, who called her his favorite disciple.
One major event of her early career was a series of concerts she gave in Moscow in 1960, organized by Russian pianist Emil Gilels. She would go on to play over 100 concerts in Russia. In 1963 Biret made her U.S. debut with the Boston Symphony in Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3, a trademark work in her repertoire. However, in addition to her Chopin and Brahms cycles, Biret was known for performing and recording contemporary music. She recorded extremely adventurous music for composer Ilhan Mimaroglu's label Finnadar in the 1970s, and her 1995 Naxos disc of Pierre Boulez's three sonatas won France's Golden Diapason award.
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RACHMANINOV: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 4 / Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Idil Biret, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 10 okt. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
RACHMANINOV: Variations on a Theme of Chopin / Preludes
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 11 okt. 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
BRAHMS: Variations, Op. 21 / 5 Piano Studies
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 8 feb. 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Mazurkas, Vol. 1
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 1 feb. 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Massenet & Franck: Musique concertante pour piano
Idil Biret, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Alain Paris
Symfonische muziek - Released by Alpha Classics on 1 jan. 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Frédéric Chopin - Alexandre Scriabine - Serge Prokofiev
Klassiek - Released by Idil Biret Archive on 23 feb. 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Best of Chopin
Idil Biret, Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Robert Stankovsky
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 23 jun. 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
CINEMA CLASSICS, Vol. 8
Opera - Released by Naxos on 4 okt. 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
MEDITATION - Classical Favourites for Relaxing and Dreaming
Symfonische muziek - Released by Naxos on 1 sep. 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2 / Krakowiak
Idil Biret, Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Robert Stankovsky
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 16 aug. 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
CHOPIN: Mazurkas, Vol. 1
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 1 feb. 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
CHOPIN: Nocturnes, Vol. 2
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 31 jul. 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Famous Piano Pieces
Jenő Jandó, Balázs Szokolay, Peter Nagy, Peter Szokolay, Idil Biret, Klára Körmendi
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 1 jan. 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
BRAHMS: Piano Sonatas No. 1, Op. 1 and No. 2, Op. 2
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 18 jun. 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saens: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 4
Idil Biret, Philharmonia Orchestra, James Loughran
Concertmuziek - Released by Naxos on 1 aug. 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin : Études Op. 10 & 25
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 1 jan. 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach & Mozart: Piano Works
Klassiek - Released by Idil Biret Archive on 1 jan. 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven Edition (Volume 18)
Klassiek - Released by Idil Biret Archive on 25 jan. 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
BRAHMS: Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 5 / Ballades, Op. 10
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 20 mrt. 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin : Mazurkas (Volume 2)
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 25 mrt. 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
BRAHMS: Piano Concerto No. 1 / SCHUMANN: Introduction and Concerto-Allegro
Idil Biret, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit
Klassiek - Released by Naxos on 13 okt. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo