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.
© TiVo
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İdil Biret Brahms Edition
Idil Biret, Roderic von Bennigsen, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, London String Quartet, Antoni Wit
Classical - Released by Idil Biret Archive on Nov 10, 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
RACHMANINOV: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3
Idil Biret, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Antoni Wit
Classical - Released by Naxos on Oct 10, 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Piano Music for Children
Classical - Released by Naxos on Nov 24, 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
LISZT: Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique (Transcription)
Classical - Released by Naxos on Aug 1, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
CHOPIN: Rondos and Variations
Classical - Released by Naxos on Oct 30, 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Concertos & Solo Music Edition
Classical - Released by Idil Biret Archive on May 1, 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Concertos pour piano (Intégrale)
Idil Biret, Olivia Coates, Chelsea Lane, Yale Symphony Orchestra, Toshiyuki Shimada
Classical - Released by Naxos on Sep 30, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Wagner Opera Transcriptions
Classical - Released by Idil Biret Archive on Jun 7, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Concertos pour piano n°1 & 2 (Concerto Edition - Volume 4)
Idil Biret, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Emil Tabakov
Classical - Released by Idil Biret Archive on Nov 17, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven Edition (Volume 12)
Concertos - Released by Idil Biret Archive on Oct 27, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
CHOPIN: Ballades / Berceuse Op. 57 / Fantasie Op. 49
Classical - Released by Naxos on Oct 30, 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
BRAHMS: Hungarian Dances / Waltzes, Op. 39
Classical - Released by Naxos on Jun 7, 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
SCHUMANN, R.: Fantasiestucke, Op. 12 / BRAHMS: Klavierstucke, Op. 118
Jenő Jandó, Benjamin Frith, Idil Biret
Classical - Released by Naxos on Dec 18, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Piano Favourites, Vol. 1
Classical - Released by Naxos on Feb 7, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Essentials: Chopin
Classical - Released by Unclassified on Aug 5, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
CHOPIN: Nocturnes, Vol. 1
Classical - Released by Naxos on Jan 1, 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
MASTERPIECES OF THE ROMANTIC PIANO
Jenő Jandó, Peter Nagy, Balázs Szokolay, Idil Biret, Ilona Prunyi, Klára Körmendi
Classical - Released by Naxos on Nov 28, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1, Fantasia on Polish Airs & Andante spianato et Grande polonaise brillante
Idil Biret, Czecho-Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Robert Stankovsky
Classical - Released by Naxos on Aug 16, 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beyond Chopin
Classical - Released by Naxos Special Projects on Jun 26, 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sonatas - 50 of the Best
Classical - Released by Naxos Special Projects on Sep 4, 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
KEMPFF: Italian Suite / Piano Sonata / Transcriptions
Classical - Released by Marco-Polo on May 20, 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo