Idil Biret Livres

Idil Biret's memoir is an important historical record of this extraordinary pianist. Her moving prose reveals a consummate musician who is intellectually brilliant, humanely sensitive, and spiritually inquisitive. "Idil Biret was a pupil and protégée of three of the greatest musicians of the last century, Wilhelm Kempff, Alfred Cortot, and Nadia Boulanger. Her legacy of recordings is worthy of her heritage. She ranges more widely than most contemporary pianists, and her recordings also include the complete piano sonatas of Pierre Boulez; Liszt's transcriptions of the Beethoven symphonies and Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique; two Saint-Saens piano concertos; and an album of music about childhood by Schumann, Debussy, and Tchaikovsky. Her 12-CD Brahms set is the finest complete version ever recorded; her complete Rachmaninoff is also unsurpassed for aristocratic, passionate pianism and exacting musicianship."- Music Critic Richard Dyer