Two Prokofiev sonata recordings of Idil were issued on LP, the 7th by Vega in France and the 2nd Finnadar/Atlantic in the USA. The 7th was recorded in Paris in November 1961 and the 2nd in New York in 1977 at the RCA Recording Studio A. The latter was recorded direct-to-disc, a process used during the 78 rpm recordings and abandoned when tape was introduced and the artists got used to the process of countless editing whereby their mistakes could be corrected. Both sonatas have also been released by IBA on CD. The 7th was recorded for a second time at the RCA studio direct to disc sessions in 1977 but not issued on LP. Then, while classifying Biret’s immense archive it was noted from contracts that she had recorded Prokofiev’s sonatas 9, 8 and 4 for radio stations in Germany (1964), Switzerland (1971) and Turkey (1973) which were all recovered. Then, miraculously a recording of the Toccata surfaced in the Soviet Union radio archives from the broadcast of Biret’s first Moscow recital of her sixteen concert USSR tour in 1960 at the age of nineteen. As with the second recording of the 7th Sonata, the Swiss, German and Turkish radio recordings were also unedited single takes and the Toccata was a direct take from a concert performance. Hence, here we have on this Archive Edition the Sonatas 2, 4, 7, 8, 9 and the Toccata of Prokofiev that Idil Biret performed in single uninterrupted takes between 1960 and 1977.

“This child is a genius. Do not let people see her or hear her and above all protect her from the damaging envy of others.” Walter Rummel (pianist, after having heard Idil play in Paris 1949)