Idil Biret is an accomplished artist, but there’s no point in pretending that these performances are competitive. The Saint-Saëns suffers from a combination of leaden articulation in the first two movements, an instrument with a dull, wooden timbre, and a general lack of lightness and sparkle. The finale is very fast, but somehow simply sounds dogged. Part of the problem may be the less than alluring orchestra: competent, but never more, and backwardly balanced.
You can only imagine what this does to Ravel. The Left Hand Concerto is well played by Biret, but the orchestra hardly partners her with the necessary color and power. In the outer movements of the G major concerto the orchestra seems to be hanging on for dear life, and once again Biret’s instrument lets her down. It’s not as if she can’t play the music well: she does, but the whole performance sounds so uninteresting–the central Adagio comes across as completely flat. Well, it’s her label. She can release what she wants, but here’s clearly a case of the unwisdom of putting the inmates in charge of the asylum.
