Concertos pour piano n° 2 et n° 4

Description

This historic 1988 recording, which immortalizes Idil Biret’s first concert at the age of 47, marks her triumphant entry into the orchestral repertoire after decades of a solo career. The album highlights her deep connection with Camille Saint-Saëns, showcasing the dramatic cadenzas of Concerto No. 2 in G minor and the innovative structure of 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 thanks to the support of the Turkish Ministry of Culture. This release marked the beginning of Idil Biret’s legendary collaboration with Naxos, which later distributed the recording worldwide, where it was acclaimed by critics. Idil Biret began her career as a soloist at the age of sixteen and has performed with the greatest orchestras in the world’s musical capitals, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, 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 has received the Lili Boulanger Memorial Award 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 of the French National Order of Merit, and that of State Artist in Turkey.