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Beethoven Project

“The Beethoven-Project is born after two major events of my career : the beginning of a long collaboration with Maestro Philippe Jordan in 2006 leading to a complete Beethoven concertos recording with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France for Naïve label. The other one was my first 32 sonatas cycle in 2008 Monte-Carlo « Printemps des Arts » festival. Therefore I decided to explore deeply Beethoven’s music on stage and on studio. The complete sonatas were released in 2013 and I will play my 10th cycle in Tokyo for Beethoven anniversary during 2019/20 season.
I was missing the chamber music with strings that eventually became the 3rd act of the project. Together with my wonderful musicians and friends Tedi Papavrami and Xavier Phillips the sonatas for Violin, cello and piano as well as the piano trios including the triple concerto completed this fantastic cruise towards Beethoven’s music ocean. Complete cello and piano music as well as violin sonatas were released in 2015 and 2017 for Evidence Classic label.
The Beethoven-Project has been growing up throughout the recent seasons in its orchestral aspect. I’ve been conducting the piano concertos from keyboard since several years bringing up a different perspective and trying to rediscover the original spirit of these masterpieces.
How was it possible to conceive a “Beethoven-Project without including his symphonies? What emblematic theme describes Beethoven music better than the beginning of his 5th symphony? Thus conducting symphonies became a commanding necessity to achieve this colossal project.
The power and the diversity of Beethoven’s music allow this project having no time limit and feeding itself permanently. In a word it is a life project.”

The complete piano sonatas The complete piano concertos The complete works for cello & piano The complete sonatas for piano & violin The complete Piano Concertos
FF Guy – Play and conduct
9 Cd 3 Cd 2 Cd 3 Cd 3 Cd

Follow the Beethoven Project in 2018, 2019, 2020 & 2021 :

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François-Frédéric Guy and the contemporary composers

“Schoenberg was asked after his Pierrot Lunaire Premiere in Vienna why he was not composing anymore in his early works romantic style. He answered: « It is exactly what I am doing and I am sorry you haven’t noticed it.»

I have a big commitment with modern music and have been working with composers since the very beginning of my career.
There is no gap for me between modern music and classical repertoire. There is only great music or weak music as it has always been.
What makes the music great ? Its ability to express deepest emotions throughout a constant evolution of the musical language and expressions meanings as for painting, architecture and littérature.
I have included Schoenberg in this list because he is for me the father of modernism in music and the link between the past and the future, although he was born in 1874!!! As well as Messiaen some decades later who was the other great source of inspiration for the after-war generation of composers and eventually entered in the classical repertoire.
I am happy to share here with you these short excerpts of some of my favourite composers I’ve recently recorded live or on cd !!”

François-Frédéric Guy

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Musique Matin – L’Invité du Jour – France Musique – Février 2022 (in French)

Sur son nouveau disque, François-Frédéric Guy met en regard deux compositeurs : Claude Debussy et Tristan Murail, qui à plus d’un siècle de distance magnifient les couleurs et les espaces dans leurs partitions permettant ainsi un saisissant rapprochement entre leurs oeuvres.

Avec Tristan Murail, François-Frédéric GUY – Emission présentée par Jean-Baptiste Urbain, diffusée sur France Musique le 8 février 2022

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Le Devoir – Quand la vie des artistes se met à tanguer – Octobre 2020 (in French)

François-Frédéric Guy est pianiste. Il y a quelques jours, il aurait dû se produire à Montréal. Il s’est plutôt retrouvé en quarantaine à Hong Kong pour deux concerts qui, finalement, n’ont pas eu lieu. Que nous enseignent ces coups étranges du destin au coeur de vies de musiciens en train de basculer ?
Propos recueillis par Christophe Huss pour Le Devoir, 24 octobre 2020

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François-Frédéric GUY – Biography

Télécharger la traduction française de la biographie ici – In Deutsch hier

François-Frédéric Guy is widely regarded an outstanding interpreter of the German Romantics and Beethoven in particular, whose piano sonatas he has recorded in their entirety along with works for cello with Xavier Phillips, for violin with Tedi Papavrami, the 5 concertos with the O.P.R.F. under Philippe Jordan’s direction, and recently released in play/conduct with Sinfornia Varsovia.
Over the course of his career he has performed many different concertos from Brahms to ProkoGiev and Bartok, with some of the world’s greatest conductors including Marc Albrecht, Fabien Gabel, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Philippe Jordan, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Kent Nagano, Michał Nesterowicz, Kazushi Ono, Josep Pons, Pascal Rophé, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Michael Tilson Thomas, Antoni Witt and Jaap van Zweden. He performed with renowned orchestras such as the Wiener Symphoniker, NDR Hamburg, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, Seoul Philharmonic, Japan Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic, BBC symphony and San Francisco Symphony among others.