“I left my heart and very probably my soul at Brighton College last Wednesday evening. It has been left in the hands of a true mistress of the piano, Turkish musician Idil Biret. Tiny and with auburn hair, Ms Biret probably has the smallest hands in the business, yet she plays up a storm. Her recital took in Bach’s Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, Schubert’s Ave Maria and der Lindenbaum, Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture as transcribed by Liszt and Liszt’s Sonata in B minor. Her playing is full of attack yet also subtle, deft, passionate and precise. The Tannhäuser Overture, with its simple melody and its brilliant cascading notes, was astounding. I don’t think Schubert’s Ave Maria has ever sounded so beautiful. This was a mesmerizing performance from someone who does not so much play the music as live within it. The concentration is total, the fingers become almost a blur, and yet she sits there barely moving her body as she plays. Long recognised for her popular interpretations of Chopin’s works, Ms Biret verges on genius.”
EVENING ARGUS England
“Idil Biret claims a place apart from the mainstream piano scene: a gallant pianist with a highly refined musical culture, gifted hands, very sensitive and with a feeling for sounds, a specialist for difficulties of the highest degree. Where others begin to perspire, she remains cool, aware of her technical infallibility. She reaches the essence of romantic virtuosity: namely, poetic vision produces display of intense effort.”
SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG Germany