François-Frédéric Guy’s parents were college lecturers, his father being a very good amateur pianist whose own parents did not encourage him to pursue a musical career. He played many works of Chopin, and concertos by Tchaikovsky, Grieg and Rachmaninov. François-Frédéric was taught the basics of music by his mother but did not begin serious study of the piano until he was seven years old, subsequently taking lessons at a small conservatory in Évreux, Normandy. At the age of eleven Guy played Chopin’s Piano Sonata in B minor Op. 58 for Dominque Merlet of the Paris Conservatoire. Too young to enrol at the Conservatoire, Guy instead received private tuition from Merlet. At fourteen he could have entered the Paris Conservatoire, but Merlet wanted him to wait another year. At fifteen Guy failed the entrance examinations, but a year later was able to enrol at the age of sixteen. He studied with Merlet for ten years, gaining a premier prix in piano and another in chamber music. He also studied with Christian Ivaldi.

After completing his studies, Guy was appointed solo pianist of the Ensemble InterContemporain under Pierre Boulez and two years later won first prize at the Unisa International Piano Competition in Pretoria. Guy also won a special prize for his performance of Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 Op. 15 at this competition. The following year, he entered the Leeds International Piano Competition but did not get through to the final round, despite strong support from Radu Lupu, Simon Rattle, Murray Perahia and Fou Ts’ong. These artists suggested Guy become resident at the International Piano Foundation at Lake Como in Italy, where during successive years he received advice from Karl-Ulrich Schnabel, Murray Perahia, Fou Ts’ong and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Leon Fleischer and Charles Rosen.

Guy has toured Indonesia and South Africa, has played under the batons of Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink and Neeme Järvi, and given solo recitals at the Wigmore Hall in London; and in January 2003 made his recital debut at the Berlin Philharmonie. In 1994 Guy gave a recital with José van Dam at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and has given solo recitals at the Salle Gaveau and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. Festivals in which Guy has participated include La Roque d’Anthéron, Montpellier, the Chopin Festival of La Bagatelle, Edinburgh, Brighton, Cheltenham, Yokohama, and Claviers d’hiver. Guy has performed with many orchestras including the London Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, the BBC Philharmonic and the Hallé, and during 2003 made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Michael Tilson Thomas.

Considering his age, Guy’s recorded output is surprisingly diverse, while understandably small. He has recorded Brahms’s Piano Sonatas Nos 2 and 3 as well as the clarinet sonatas with Romain Guyot. Harmonia Mundi added him to their roster of Les Nouveaux Interprètes, and their first release (recorded in 1997), of Beethoven’s Sonatas Opp. 106 and 109, received extremely high praise from the critics. Charles Timbrell in Fanfare stated, ‘This is extremely mature Beethoven playing for a pianist in his late twenties…’ whilst the American Record Guide found Guy to be ‘…a magnificent pianist, fully up to the task. He is also blessed with a penetrating intelligence, a granitic but transcendentant technique, and compelling communicative powers. This is a charismatic reading that ranks up there with Brendel’s, Levy’s and Gilels’s.’ Although not so impressed with Op. 109, the reviewer concluded, ‘These are inspired and moving performances that linger on long after the music dies away… As an interpreter of Beethoven, Mr Guy is something of a genius.’ Tim Parry in The Gramophone was more reserved: ‘…although the slow movements do not quite reach the spiritual heights of the very greatest, these are lucid and thoughtful accounts.’

Guy’s second release, recorded in 2001 for Näive (with whom he signed an exclusive contract) was of Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas Nos 6 and 8. Guy has also recorded contemporary music by Boulez and Boucourechliev as well as music by the young French composer Eric Tanguy; whilst with cellist Anne Gastinel he has recorded sonatas by Brahms and Beethoven, and a disc of Romantic cello music with Henri Demarquette. A performance of Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 Op. 83 with the London Philharmonic and Paavo Berglund has been released by Näive.

One of the most promising of the youngest generation of pianists, Guy has a high standard to maintain after the release of his excellent Beethoven ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata recording.

© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — Jonathan Summers (A–Z of Pianists, Naxos 8.558107–10).