Fou Ts’ong Remembered: François-Frédéric Guy Piano Recital

François-Frédéric Guy is widely regarded first and foremost as an outstanding interpreter of the German Romantics and their forebears. His unrivalled ability to create musical structure in sound is especially evident in his interpretations of Beethoven, which bring to life his profound and ongoing dialogue with the composer.

The pianist has a special affinity for the music of Bartók, Brahms, Liszt, and Prokofiev, as well as a strong commitment to contemporary music. He has close ties to composers including Ivan Fedele, Marc Monnet, Gérard Pesson, Bruno Mantovani, and Hugues Dufourt. François-Frédéric Guy has also given the premiere of works such as 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. Based on this fruitful collaboration, he will premiere another new piano concerto by Tristan Murail with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo in June 2021.

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

Conducting from the piano, François-Frédéric Guy works frequently with the Sinfonia Varsovia. From 2017 to 2020, he was artist of residence with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris with a special focus on the Beethoven repertoire. In the dual role of soloist and conductor, François-Frédéric Guy is also regularly performing works by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and Brahms, as well as, most recently, the world premiere of the piano concerto Écoumène by Aurélien Dumont, which was composed especially for him. His orchestral partners further include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liege, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife or the National Orchestra of Pays de la Loire.

As a Beethoven specialist François-Frédéric Guy will also continue to focus on chamber music and solo works of the great composer: at the end of the summer, Radio France presented the complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas from the Maison de la Radio Paris in live streams, where young French pianists performed their interpretations in eight recitals under the auspices of Guy. At the Festival International de Piano de La Roque d’Anthéron he also performed in the prominent cycle alongside colleagues such as Nicholas Angelich and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. After interpreting the complete violin sonata cycle with his long-time duo partner Tedi Papavrami at the start of the season at the Piano à Lyon concert series, the two musicians will perform the complete Beethoven trios together with Xavier Phillips on the cello in the Arsenal de Metz.

The pianist has been a guest of orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, 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, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gustavo Gimeno, Michael Sanderling, 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 his discography is the complete recording of Beethoven’s sonatas, released in 2013 on the Zig-Zag Territoires label, which had already released his highly acclaimed Liszt album, Harmonies poétiques et religieuses. The complete recording of Beethoven’s piano concertos with the Sinfonia Varsovia under François-Frédéric Guy’s direction was released to mark the start of the ‘Beethoven Year’ 2020. Together with his chamber music partners Xavier Phillips and Tedi Papavrami, he also released highly acclaimed recordings of Beethoven’s cello and violin sonatas, and in 2017 presented his new Brahms album with the three piano sonatas.

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