2009 was a year of travels, concerts and release of a record number of CDs (19 altogether) on Idil Biret’s own record label IBA (Idil Biret Archive) which was launched internationally in December 2008.
The year started with a concert in Potsdam (Germany) in January in memory of Wilhelm Kempff who had lived there before the second world war. His children Irene and Roland were present at the concert. Then Idil started her series of concerts in Turkey which took her to Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Gaziantep, Antalya, Eskisehir, Karabük as well as to universities in Mersin, Burdur, Pamukkale, Edirne, Konya, Nigde, Edirne, Erzurum and the Middle East Technical University in Ankara throughout the year.
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2007 was the first in over twenty years that a new recording of Idil Biret was not released on CD. But, the backlog of recorded works waiting for release was impressive. These were the three Tchaikovsky Concertos, the two Liszt Concertos and the Totentanz, the Concertos of Grieg and Schumann and the 32 Beethoven Sonatas now completed and being edited. During the year it was decided to issue all these and future recordings of Idil on her own label Idil Biret Archives (IBA) and distribute them both digitally for downloading and as CDs on the internet and shops worldwide using the services of a major distributor. More information on this work will be available on Idil’s website soon. 