In 1949, eight-year-old Turkish pianist Idil Biret was presented by Nadia Boulanger in Paris as a prodigy. Given that, it's remarkable that her playing is still fresh more than six decades later, but this pairing of Beethoven's first two piano concertos offers lively, well-thought-out performances that could satisfy any buyer. The booklet refers to an Idil Biret Archive with plans to release the pianist's older recordings, but this one is apparently new, having been recorded in Ankara in 2008. Perhaps the nicest surprise is ...
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In 1949, eight-year-old Turkish pianist Idil Biret was presented by Nadia Boulanger in Paris as a prodigy. Given that, it's remarkable that her playing is still fresh more than six decades later, but this pairing of Beethoven's first two piano concertos offers lively, well-thought-out performances that could satisfy any buyer. The booklet refers to an Idil Biret Archive with plans to release the pianist's older recordings, but this one is apparently new, having been recorded in Ankara in 2008. Perhaps the nicest surprise is Ankara's little-known Bilkent Orchestra, which, under Polish conductor Antoni Wit, delivers a silky tone in the two slow movements and adapts itself well to Biret's strikingly varied readings. Biret's playing is in the precise, intelligent mold of one of her teachers, Wilhelm Kempff, with a small admixture of the tempo freedoms characteristic of the other, Alfred Cortot. Sample the finale of the Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 19, which unfolds with unerring logic from...
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