Liszt’s solo piano transcriptions of Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies began to proliferate in the 1980s when Cyprien Katsaris launched a cycle for Teldec, and Harmonia Mundi followed suit, using different pianists. Idil Biret, however, became the first to complete all nine on disc. Recorded in 1985 and 1986, Biret’s cycle first was issued by EMI/Electrola on vinyl in a six-disc set that did not last long in the catalog. Although EMI never brought out this cycle on CD in the West, Biret’s own Naxos-distributed label IBA acquired the masters and began reissuing the performances in individual volumes. All six volumes now are bundled together at a reasonable price.
In deference to the limitations of LP sides, Biret did not observe all of the repeats, which is just as well, for her tempos generally are quite slow in relation to the livelier Katsaris recordings, plus later versions from Leslie Howard and Konstantin Scherbakov. However, Biret holds attention through extremely meticulous and variegated articulation and fiercely focused rhythmic control that rarely if ever slackens.
Sometimes the limits of the piano’s sustaining power defeat Biret’s protracted pacing, such as in No. 7’s inner movements and in the emasculated dramatic chordal tuttis in No. 9’s first movement, which is hardly the Allegro ma non troppo we expect. In the No. 9 Finale’s March, Biret pushes her usually formidable fingers to the limit in octaves that Katasaris audaciously tosses off. At the same time, her cogent contrapuntal interplay, scaling of dynamics, and sonorous climaxes project an impressive cumulative grip in the first two movements of the “Eroica” and in the transition between the Fifth’s last two movements.
Biret’s gifts as a colorist give appreciative textural character to the “Pastoral” slow movement’s evocations of bird song and to the timbrally three-dimensional melody/accompaniment relationship in the Fourth’s Adagio. And the delicacy and point of her rapid fingerwork in the Second and Eighth Finales can only be that of a seasoned virtuoso. And whereas the extroverted Katsaris modifies Liszt’s piano writing with textual emendations such as added octaves, filled in chords, and the like, Biret takes the transcriber’s text on faith as much as humanly possible, as does Howard in his suaver, more generalized interpretations.
Although the best of the Katsaris and Scherbakov Beethoven/Liszt cycles stand out for brio and bravura, Biret’s honest musicianship and fierce concentration deserve a fair hearing.
