Idil Biret’s career in East Germany (GDR)
Idil at Leipziger Gewandhaus in 1985 before the 2nd Bartok concerto under the baton of Thedore Guschlbauer Idil Biret was due to make her fifth tour of the german Democratic republic in early 1990 with concerts scheduled in Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Halle and other cities when unrest started there which resulted in the fall of…
Prof. Wilhelm Kempff in Turkey
Idil Biret read from this text for the Bayerische TV programm Prepared by Sefik Yüksel – recorded in Ammerland in 1995 It was in June 1982 during a weeklong stay of Idil Biret in Italy with Prof. Kempff in his Villa overlooking the Mediterranean from the Positano village heights that the subject of Prof. Kempff’s…
The Declaration of the Piano Virtuoso Kempff
Excerpts of an interview with W. Kempff in Istanbul AKSAM Newspaper – 21 January 1950 “Music in Turkey is becoming quickly westernised. I heard Idil Biret in Paris. In ten years she will be an internationally renowned artist” Wilhelm Kempff was preparing his bags to catch the Ankara train when I found him at the…
From the memoires of Alan Weiner on Idil Biret’s childhood years in Paris (1950)
The most vivid memories of my stay in Paris are the result of my relations with two females, one sixty two years of age [Nadia Boulanger], the other eight [Idil Biret]. Aside from my musical studies, the most rewarding result of my trip to Paris has been my acquaintance with Idil Biret and her parents.…