Search - Idil Biret :: Chopin: Waltzes (Complete)

Kempff Lives in Idil Biret!!...

Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 12/13/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

".

The exquisite Idil Biret is Kempff's most vital pupil, and while of course she has her own technique and talent, her ethos and esthetique are distinctively Kempffian: Kempff lives in Biret!



And bless Biret too, because her current production of Art enables us to "hear" Kempff realize works he left unrecorded. This Kempffian sound is articulated in the keyboard attack and especially in the vision of the musical architectonics of these works of rare art.



And while Kempff was the Beethoven expert (as well as the Brahms expert), it's a little recognized fact that he was a truly great Chopinist--which is a very rare thing indeed.



Now, Biret picked up on Kempff's insight into Brahms and especially into Chopin, and this she reveals to us: Biret's realizations of Brahms and Chopin are virtually the finest available--and perhaps the most unfortunately underrated.



Take this Chopin Waltz cycle for example: they could scarcely be played more beautifully and with finer art than here. Biret's technique and architechtonic vision are splendid. In the subdued a-minor Waltz (Op.34, No. 2) Biret's timing comes in at :05.5mins as compared to Ashkenazy at :04.5mins: huge difference in realization. Likewise the gorgeous sadly-sweet Db-major Waltz (Op. 70, No. 3): Biret ~:03mins; Ashkenazy "

Fascinating Essay by the Pianist

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 06/12/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This 1991 studio recording of Chopin's Waltzes has a great deal to recommend it, not least pianist Idil Biret's notes on performing Chopin which give an indication of the love and care she has taken in producing her award-winning 15 CD edition of Chopin's piano music. The Waltzes were, of course, written as separate pieces over the entire span of Chopin's relatively short life, and it is perhaps not advisable to listen to them one after the other as though they were a unified work of art. However, Idil Biret's playing is very satisfying, and if I award the disc four stars instead of five, this is because, in comparison with the same pianist's recording of Chopin's Sonatas, the sound quality and/or the instrument used is a little top-heavy, the right hand being given too much prominence and the deeper notes sounding somewhat suppressed. I am not a Chopin expert, so I leave further comment to those who know his music better than I do."