“Idil Biret is equal to the challenge (of Boulez’s 2nd Sonata). She does not merely sustain the thirty minute length—enormously ambitious for music that cannot fall back on the familiar landmarks of tonality—but inflects and shapes it in a remarkable way. The drama here…is the dialogue between a thought process and its corporeal realization, between the musical idea itself and its expression as sound-color of an almost improvisatory nature. Miss Biret catches all this, and she does so beautifully. A sensitive performance of the by-now classic Webern Variations completes and impressive American recording debut.” BEST OF THE MONTH, STEREO REVIEW – USA December 1973
“I slipped out (of the hall) and down Broadway to the Merkin Concert hall, where the Turkish pianist Idil Biret was giving a rare performance of Pierre Boulez’s Second Piano Sonata. Miss Biret’s way with the piece was astonishing. She slammed into the keyboard and attacked the music tempestuously. She played from memory and drove the music with an unrelenting virtuosity. All the gestures of the work—the stark contrasts of register and volume, the angular structure of the phrases, the sharp delineation of the part-writing—were there in outline…This was a gripping, impressive account of a commanding score.” THE NEW YORKER – USA February 1982
“Boulez’s major contribution to the sonata literature is the 2nd. Schwann currently lists only those by Pollini and Biret. Both are excellent and have the advantage of emphasizing complementary aspects of the score. Pollini’s performance, the icier, is more alert to the music’s violence…Biret’s performance, reminds us of the music’s fantastic side: she’s more effective in the impressionistic haze of the 2nd movement, and she manages to give the 3rd movement an almost jazzy flavor…Biret and Pollini simply carry you forward.” FANFARE – USA