Ligeti: Etudes, Books I & II
Idil Biret, piano
Naxos 8.555777

A Major Disappointment

It pains me to write the following.  I had waited in eager anticipation
for this release.  I have loved the recording of the =C9tudes that
Pierre-Laurent Aimard made for the Ligeti Edition but wanted to hear
another pianist's take on these towering masterpieces of late 20th-century
piano music.  I thought 'who better than Idil Biret?' After all, she is
a real virtuoso and in her playing of Romantic masters, like Chopin, she
has shown that she can make poetry of music.  Alas, this was not to be.

In what I can only read as a self-serving note in the enclosed booklet,
Biret indicates that she slows down some of the etudes, explaining that
composers often don't really know whether their music can be played as
written.  And so she decided she would follow the 'musical markings'
rather than the specified timings supplied by Ligeti.  It certainly
appears to me that Aimard manages the markings quite nicely and at the
required tempi.  Further, he does so with a far more poetic management
of dynamics, tempi and phrasing.  Indeed, HE is the one who plays this
modern masterpiece as if it were Chopin.

The sound of her piano doesn't help Biret; it is somewhat harsh.
But, more than that, much of her playing sounds like she is just
managing the notes, not the music within them.  I can only assume that
her interpretations were not settled enough to record them.  Although
it is hard to conceive of such difficult pieces being sight-read straight
through, her playing is rough and ready enough to suggest little more
than that.  I am convinced that with more study she could have done a
much more nuanced job of it.  She's a fine musician and a wonderful
pianist.  Maybe she'll have another chance to record them in the future.

Meanwhile, these simply won't do.  I would strongly urge a buyer to look
for the Aimard version (also available here at amazon.com); it contains
more music (the 'Musica ricercata' and part of Book III) and only costs
a little more. (I have not had the opportunity to hear the recordings
of two other pianists, Lucille Chung [doing Book II] or Fredrik Ullen
 [I & II].)

Scott Morrison