Idil Biret

Turkish pianist Idil Biret stands as a central presence in the Naxos catalog through her exhaustive recording projects, among them the complete piano output of Chopin and Brahms. For her own IBA label she committed to disc the full cycle of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas across the years 1994 to 2008. Major orchestras throughout the world have engaged her as soloist, while recital appearances have taken her to numerous countries; one memorable milestone occurred at the 1986 Montpellier Festival in France, where she presented the complete, technically punishing Liszt transcriptions of Beethoven’s nine symphonies. EMI captured those works in the studio, with subsequent release on the IBA imprint. In short, Biret belonged to the uppermost tier of pianists—admired by devotees for her breadth rather than celebrated by a broad public.

Born in Ankara, Turkey, on November 21, 1941, she displayed prodigious gifts from early childhood. Turkish audiences hailed her as the Turkish Mozart, and at age eight the financially constrained national Parliament passed a special appropriation to fund her European training. As an infant she reacted with extreme sensitivity to music; by two she could reproduce any tune she heard at the piano. She possessed an exceptional faculty for learning scores inwardly, without keyboard practice, and would then perform them with flawless accuracy that astonished listeners. Her first French instructor was the renowned pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, whose guidance enabled swift progress through the Paris Conservatory curriculum. Three first prizes came her way at fifteen, after which she embarked on a professional career the next year. She later worked with German pianist Wilhelm Kempff, who named her his favorite disciple.

A notable early landmark was the 1960 series of Moscow concerts arranged by Emil Gilels; she would eventually perform more than one hundred times in Russia. Her United States debut took place in 1963 with the Boston Symphony in Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3, a work that remained a signature item in her repertory. In addition to the Chopin and Brahms cycles, she earned recognition for her advocacy of contemporary music, recording daring scores for Ilhan Mimaroglu’s Finnadar label in the 1970s and receiving France’s Golden Diapason award for the 1995 Naxos release of Pierre Boulez’s three sonatas.