Hearing these three issues in succession from the continuing Idil
Biret Archive gave me a much clearer idea of the musical character
and strengths of this prolific and wide-ranging artist.
She is clearly a very
serious artist. The range of her repertoire – including Boulez,
Brahms, Chopin and Beethoven - tells us that already. She
is unafraid of presenting the music without additional surface
charm but with great strength and immense technical assurance.
The two concertos for instance tend to be slower than is usual
nowadays but benefit from carefully chosen and appropriate
relative speeds and subtle variation of tone. As with another
artist notorious for slow speeds, at least in his later years
– Klemperer - there is considerable gain in the resulting
ability to articulate the music more clearly. For this reason
it can in fact sound much faster than it actually is. There
is indeed a freshness about these performances which I found
very attractive and which prevents the music from ever sitting
down on itself, as can happen at times in these works when
heard in unsympathetic hands, especially the Schumann. There
is a very happy partnership with the orchestra. Even if you
have many existing versions of this popular coupling there
is much to be said for adding this to your collection as a
very worthwhile alternative.
The
other aspect of Ms Biret’s playing is the beauty of her tone,
and her ability to create an intricate texture, clarifying
the musical argument. This applies especially to the symphonies,
which I found mesmerizing, but it can be found in each of
the discs. There is no empty virtuosity here, rather a display
of the inner workings and character of each movement which
is worth hearing no matter how well you think you know the
music.
In
the old days of 78s, HMV artists were divided into red labels
and plum labels – sheep and goats. Public perception tended
to follow that division, often unfairly to such artists as
Moiseiwitsch who tended to be regarded as inferior just because
they were on the “wrong” label. A similar perception may have
applied to Ms Biret in the past. I hope that her continuing
archive will demonstrate that she is a formidable player and
artist whose performances well deserve to be preserved in
this way.
I
look forward eagerly to the continuation of her distinguished
series of the Beethoven/Liszt Symphonies in particular but
all of these discs are well worth hearing.
John
Sheppard
IBA 8.571258 CD 
