Idil Biret, piano


‘Idil Biret’s new Liszt album prompts a reappraisal of her extraordinary talent… In her Liszt Sonata… you will hear playing of a formidable power and assurance… There is no mistaking her lightning reflexes in the second of the Paganini Etudes and her vivo in the imitation sautillé bowing of No. 4 would make even Heifetz envious. Biret’s brilliant, iron-clad Steinway is well recorded and… in her Liszt, there is stunning proficiency and a forbidding manner very much her own.’ Gramophone, 2011



‘Nearly a quarter century separates the two recordings of the Turkish pianist, who with the Paganini Etudes (1987) demonstrates what a brilliant virtuoso she was, and with the Liszt Sonata – recorded in 2010 – shows that she still is. Furthermore, her playing has gained a majestic depth and an expressive self-will, as the Sonata, an exploding testimony of Biret’s late style, exhibits. So, these recordings, very well prepared in respect of sound, are an important contribution to the Liszt year.’ FonoForum, 2011



‘The Idil Biret Archive, distributed by Naxos, has already supplied me many pleasurable listening hours… Excellent and quite enjoyable performances of the Liszt sonata along with good filler pieces… This is not just another recording of Liszt’s masterly sonata, but a mature, probing interpretation that doesn’t miss any incarnation of the main motives or lack the technical abilities to bring them out… If it were a concert recording, it would rank alongside the best I have ever heard…’ American Record Guide, 2011