François-Frédéric Guy

François-Frédéric Guy is widely regarded first and foremost as an outstanding interpreter of the German Romantics and their forebears. The way he creates musical structure in sound is unrivalled, especially evident in his interpretations of Beethoven, with whom he has a particularly intensive musical relationship.

The pianist also has a special affinity with the music of Bartók, Brahms, Liszt, and Prokofiev and a strong commitment to contemporary music. He has close links to composers such as Ivan Fedele, Marc Monnet, Gérard Pesson, Bruno Mantovani and Hugues Dufourt, who dedicated his masterpiece for solo piano, Erlkönig (2006), to the pianist. He has also given the premiere of works including Mantovani’s Double Concerto (2012), which he performed with the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In 2013 he gave the South Korean premiere of Tristan Murail’s Le Désenchantement du monde with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.

In the current season, François-Frédéric Guy will continue his focus on Beethoven while also giving numerous appearances in the dual role of soloist and conductor. His acclaimed performances of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas, with guest appearances in Washington, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Monte Carlo, Norwich, Metz and Buenos Aires, take him to Tokyo and Seoul this season.

François-Frédéric Guy first made his mark leading the orchestra from the piano with Beethoven’s piano concertos. In the current season, he has conducted the Orchester National du Pays de la Loire with works by Mozart and Beethoven, among others, and will also conduct Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 of at the MONACO Festival Printemps des Arts de Monte Carlo with the Sinfonia Varsovia. In collaboration with the Orchester de Chambre de Paris, François-Frédéric Guy is also expanding his repertoire in the dual role of pianist/conductor with Brahms' two piano concertos and preparing a recording of Mozart's late concertos. Together they will usher in the Parisian celebrations for the Beethoven Year in January 2020 with the complete cycle of piano concertos at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.

In the course of 2019, François-Frédéric Guy continues to present a diverse range of repertoire as a soloist with orchestras, playing Bartók with the Orchester de la Suisse Romande under Gustavo Gimeno, Liszt with the Orchestra Sinfónica de Navarra, and Tristan Murail's Piano Concerto with the George Enescu Philharmonic at the invitation of the Enescu Festival, among others. The pianist will also give numerous recitals this season – his solo concerts taking him to Madrid, La Roque d'Antheron, and to the Wigmore Hall in London, where after playing a solo recital he will appear in concert with cello partner Xavier Phillips.

The pianist has been a guest of orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Vienna Symphony and Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich. He has collaborated with world-famous conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kazushi Ono, Marc Albrecht, Philippe Jordan, Daniel Harding, Neeme Järvi, Lionel Bringuier, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Kent Nagano. In recital he has performed at the major concert halls in cities such as London, Milan, Berlin, Munich, Moscow, Paris, Vienna and Washington, and at festivals including the Chopin Festival in Warsaw, Beethovenfest Bonn, Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo, and the Cheltenham Festival.

At the heart of François-Frédéric Guy’s discography is his recording of the complete Beethoven sonatas, which was released in 2013 by Zig-Zag Territoires, who also released his acclaimed Liszt recording Harmonies poétiques et religieuses. In 2017 for Evidence Classics he recorded his first album of work by Brahms, featuring the three piano sonatas. Before that, his recording of Beethoven’s cello sonatas with Xavier Phillips received much critical acclaim and was named Recording of the month by Gramophone as well as MusicWeb International. Autumn 2017 will see the release of the Beethoven violin sonatas, recorded with Tedi Papvrami; also slated for completion by his piano trio is a project to record the complete Beethoven chamber music works for piano.

2018/19 season

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