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Since his debut performances with the Orchestre de Paris in 1999 (conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch) and with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (at the Lucerne Festival in 2000, conducted by Bernard Haitink), François-Frédéric Guy has established himself as one of the most fascinating pianists of his generation.
He is widely regarded first and foremost as a specialist of the German romantics and above all of Beethoven. In 2008 Guy embarked on a major Beethoven project that has included recording and performing in concert all 32 Beethoven Sonatas and the 5 Piano Concertos. He is also a dedicated chamber musician and regularly performs Beethoven's chamber music for strings and piano with the violinist Tedi Papavrami and the cellist Xavier Phillips. As part of the Beethoven project, he has performed the complete cycle of 32 piano sonatas a.o. in Washington, Paris, Monte Carlo, Metz and recently at the Festival Berlioz in La Côte-Saint-André. In October 2013 the box-set of the live recording of the complete 32 sonatas was released by the French label Zig-Zag Territoires, which had already previously released his highly acclaimed Liszt album, containing the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses and the Sonata in B minor. His previous recordings for Naïve Classique have included works by Beethoven, Brahms and Prokofiev. For Chandos he is now preparing a duo album together with Jean-Efflam Bayouzet.
In addition to his admiration for Beethoven – whom he describes as "the Alpha and Omega of music" – François-Frédéric Guy has special affinities with the music of Bartók, Brahms, Liszt and Prokofiev and a strong commitment to contemporary music with close links to composers such as Ivan Fedele, Marc Monnet, Gérard Pesson, Bruno Mantovani and Hugues Dufourt who dedicated Erlkönig (2006), his masterpiece for piano solo, to him. He also performed the world premiere of Monnet's En pièces (2007) at Festival Musica in Strasbourg, a work dedicated to him, and of Mantovani's Double Concerto (2012) with the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In October 2013 he gave the Korean premiere of Le Désenchantement du monde by Tristan Murail with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.
François-Frédéric Guy has performed worldwide with many renowned orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, San Francisco Symphony and Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, to name just a few. He has collaborated with world famous conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Bernard Haitink, Kazushi Ono, Marc Albrecht, Philippe Jordan, Daniel Harding, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Berglund, Lionel Bringuier and Michael Tilson Thomas. In recital he has performed at the major concert halls in cities including London, Milan, Berlin, Munich, Moscow, Paris, Vienna and Washington (D.C.), and at festivals including the Piano Festival in La Roque d'Anthéron, Chopin Festival in Warsaw, Beethovenfest Bonn, Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo and Cheltenham Festival.
François-Frédéric Guy also recently made his conducting debut from the piano with Orchestre Phiharmonique de Liège and Orchestre d'Avignon, with whom he performed the complete Beethoven concertos. Other highlights of the upcoming seasons are concerts with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (Brahms 2nd concerto), with the Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest (Liszt 2nd concerto), as well as several complete Beethoven concerto cycles with the orchestras of Metz, Luxembourg, Saarbrücken and Limoges. He will perform solo recitals at the Wigmore Hall in London, in Aix-en-Provence and in Mainz. In Rio de Janeiro he will again perform a complete cycle of Beethoven's piano sonatas in April 2015. François-Frédéric Guy is Artist in Residence at Metz Arsenal Hall.
Source: karstenwitt.com