Concertos pour piano n° 2 et n° 4

Description

This historic 1988 recording, which immortalizes Idil Biret’s first orchestral concert at age 47, marks her triumphant entry into the orchestral repertoire after decades as a solo artist. The album highlights her deep connection with Camille Saint-Saëns, emphasizing the dramatic cadenzas of the Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor and the innovative structure of the Piano Concerto No. 4 in C minor. Recorded at St. Barnabas Church in London with renowned sound engineers Mark Brown and Tony Faulkner, this project was made possible with the support of the Turkish Ministry of Culture. This release marked the beginning of Idil Biret’s legendary collaboration with Naxos, which subsequently distributed the recording worldwide to critical acclaim. Idil Biret began her career as a soloist at the age of sixteen, performing with major orchestras in international musical capitals, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of renowned conductors such as Erich Leinsdorf, Pierre Monteux, Hermann Scherchen, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Kazimierz Kord, and Antoni Wit. She received the Lili Boulanger Memorial Prize in Boston, the Harriet Cohen/Dinu Lipatti Gold Medal in London, the Polish Cavalry Cross, the Adelaide Ristori Prize in Italy, the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite in France, and the title of State Artist in Turkey.