release is on December 16, 2008; the second will be in February 2009, with succeeding volumes released every other month. Biret recorded most of the sonatas near Brussels between 2001–2005 (three were recorded in 1994). She recorded the concertos with the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antoni Wit in 2008. Biret is the only pianist to have performed all of Beethoven's piano sonatas, concertos and Liszt transcriptions of the nine symphonies in public concerts. She is now the first pianist to have recorded them all. In a 2014 interview, she expressed interest in improvisation and the Opus Clavicembalisticum by Sorabji. Awards and recognition Biret has been a State Artist since 1971, an honorary title issued to artists by the government of Turkey for their contributions into the Turkish culture. In 1987 Gürdal Duyar, renowned sculptor of Ataturk monuments around Turkey, offered to sculpt a bust of her. He arrived at her house with a lump of clay in his hand, however after working on the clay bust for some time the clay starts to dry out and crack and Duyar leaves with the work in progress bust to go make a plaster mould of it. After Duyar passed away, the fate of the bust was unknown for some time until it resurfaced when Şefik Büyükyüksel, the spouse of Biret, discovered a photo of it online in the private collection of Dr. Baha Toygar who had bought it from a gallery owned by Emel Say. In 1995, Biret's recordings of Chopin's entire oeuvre was awarded the "Grand Prix du Disque Frédéric Chopin" in Poland. The same year, she won the "Diapason d'Or" prize in France for her recording of Boulez's sonatas, which was selected among the best recordings of the year by the newspaper Le Monde. Biret also received the following awards: the Lili Boulanger Memorial Prize in Boston (US), the Harriet Cohen/Dinu Lipatti Gold Medal in London (UK) the Polish Prize for Artistic Merits, the National Knight Merit Order of France, the Adelaide Ristori Prize, Italy. In 2007 she was decorated with Distinguished Service Order – Cavalry Cross by the Polish President Lech Kaczynski for her contributions to Polish culture with her recordings and performances of Chopin's music. References Source Full biography Idil Biret and Wilhelm Kempff, photos Idil Biret's repertoire Reminiscences on Idil Biret Alan Weiner's memoires Short biography and discography External links Idil Biret’s official website Idil Biret