“Idil Biret’s reading of the Symphonie fantastique (WEA Finnadar SR9023) is, in many-respects the most remarkable thing of its kind in the repertoire…This is not a record that Berliozians or Lisztians will want to miss, for the Turkish pianist Idil Biret, a pupil of Cortot and Kempff, here confirms the favourable impression she made in this piece at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London during April of this year. There are a few minor deviations from Liszt’s text, but she possesses the very large technique and range of accent and dynamics needed; and she is excellently recorded.”
— Max Harrison GRAMOPHONE - UK 1979
“Idil Biret was a thousand times right in playing the Symphonie fantastique by Berlioz, in Liszt’s transcription (at her Paris recital). With confounding technical skill and an admirable musicality Idil Biret has avenged pianists for the insult Berlioz once committed against them by ignoring them.”
— Claude Samuel LE MATIN - France 1979
“Only a brave soul and a confident technician would set out in public to play Liszt’s transcription for piano of Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique” as Idil Biret did at Alice Tully Hall on Thursday night.”
— Donald Henahan NEW YORK TIMES - USA 1979
“Compared to so many (orchestral) recordings of the Symphonie Fantastique this Liszt version by Idil Biret is vastly preferable, a record for a desert island. ”
— ORPHEUS Magazine - Germany 1979