Idil Biret is a Turkish pianist who studied under Nadia Boulanger, Cortot and Wilhelm Kempff, whom engagingly she called “Uncle Kempff”, and was later to record for Naxos. So her credentials are impressive and this CD at last fully demonstrates the distinction of her playing.

She has a splendid partner in Alain Pâris, and the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra (founded as recently as 1993) prove to be an excellent and responsive ensemble. They open the delightful Massenet Concerto - for all the world like a sixth concerto by Saint-Saëns - with engaging elegance, yet when the main theme arrives Biret strikes the right degree of flamboyance. But it is the often exquisite romantic delicacy of her playing that captures the listener. The unusual Largo opens reflectively but gradually becomes more animated, while the finale gambols along infectiously and light-heartedly. In short, a captivating work played with great imagination and understanding.

Refinement is also the keynote of the equally impressive performance of Franck's Symphonic Variations. The orchestra set the mood of romantic lyricism which permeates Birit's relaxed approach, again full of imaginative touches leading to that elysian variation where the piano ruminates in tranquillity over the bewitching soliloquy from the lower strings.

Les djinns (inspired by a Victor Hugo poem, Les orientales) opens lugubriously but the spooky influence does not create malignant music; the piano enters with great dash to chase the phantoms away, and now it is Biret's easy virtuosity that carries the music foward, with warm lyrical contrast, and fragile but glittering dexterity in the delectable coda where the apparitions are banished by gentleness and purity. I greatly enjoyed these perfomances and hope there will be more recordings from this source and these artists