Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 4

This historic 1988 recording, which documents Idil Biret’s first concert recording at the age of 47, embodies her triumphant entry into the orchestral repertoire after a decades-long solo career. The album underscores her deep connection to Camille Saint-Saëns and presents the dramatic cadenzas of Concerto No. 2 in G minor and the innovative structure of Concerto No. 4 in C minor. Recorded at St. Barnabas Church in London with legendary sound engineers Mark Brown and Tony Faulkner, the project was made possible through the support of the Turkish Ministry of Culture. This release marked the beginning of Biret’s legendary collaboration with Naxos, which eventually distributed the recording worldwide to critical acclaim. Idil Biret began her career as a soloist at the age of sixteen and performed with major orchestras in the world's most important music centers, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Leningrad Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Warsaw Philharmonic, under the baton of conductors of the highest rank such as Erich Leinsdorf, Pierre Monteux, Hermann Scherchen, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Kazimierz Kord, and Antoni Wit. She received the Lili Boulanger Memorial Award in Boston, the Harriet Cohen/Dinu Lipatti Gold Medal in London, the Polish Cross of Merit (Cavalier), the Adelaide Ristori Prize in Italy, the French Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite, and the title of State Artist in Turkey.