Direct-to disc

In the 1970s there was a brief period when a very limited number of Direct to Disc LP recordings were issued. The main reason was the claim that better sound quality could be obtained with the direct to disc process which was the same as that used for recording 78 rpms. The difficulty was that…

Pierre Boulez 2

“There ought to be a law” people used to say – those who heard Idil Biret play at a time when she was not even three years of age. It did not take long for the Turkish Grand National Assembly to pass a bill, bearing her name, which allowed her to study in Paris. She…

Pierre Boulez 1

The three piano sonatas of Pierre Boulez occupy an important position in piano literature of the twentieth Century. The Instrument, in fact, has not been central to the work of the majority of composers of the Century as it was to those of the nineteenth. The thirty-two sonatas of Beethoven were for long a constraining…

Birets Recordings of 20th Century Composers

Over the years Idil Biret has made more than seventy records, also placing greater emphasis on contemporary compositions in her concerts as well as in the studio. Among others she has made her American recording debut with Pierre Boulez Second Piano Sonata which also presented the first U.S. recording of this important contemporary work –…

The Making of The Complete Works of Chopin by Idil Biret

In June 1989 Idil Biret received an offer from the then newly established Naxos label to record Chopin’s complete works for piano solo and for piano and orchestra. Without hesitation she accepted to undertake this monumental task. This was a project that would be the dream and dread of many a pianist and the past…

Reviews for the Complete Beethoven Symphonies

IDIL BIRET performed the Liszt transcriptions of all the nine Beethoven Symphonies at the 1986 Montpellier Festival in four recitals which were also broadcast ‘live’ by Radio France. This was the first know public performance of the series in this entirety. The same year she made the world premier recording of the complete set of…

The Making of Complete Beethoven Symphonies Introduction

Europe applauds the Turkish pianist Idil Biret (Cover Story in MILLIYET Arts Magazine on February 7th, 1987) [Translated from Turkish into English language by Sefik Yüksel] 19 march 1986. Midnight.

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943), Complete Works for Piano Solo, the four Piano Concertos, Paganini-Rhapsody

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943), Complete Works for Piano Solo, the four Piano Concertos, Paganini-Rhapsody

The Background of the Making of the Complete Beethoven Symphonies

About the background of the recordings Written by Sefik Yüksel (Photos on top and below: Biret at St. Bavon Church, where the symphonies were recorded) Following a suggestion by Mr. Michel Devos, a Belgian independent recording engineer, Idil Biret recorded Liszt’s piano transcriptions of  three Beethoven Symphonies in July and September 1985 for  local release…