François-Frédéric Guy has now performed concertos with the LPO, Philharmonia, Hallé, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Phiharmonic, Scottish National Orchestra, CBSO, Munich Philharmonic, Bamberg SO, Berliner SO, Tonhalle Zurich, Helsinki Philharmonic, Japan Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre de Monte-Carlo, Orchestre de Paris and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, as well as many other orchestras.

Conductors he has worked with include Wolfgang Sawallisch, Bernard Haitink, Paavo Berglund, Neeme Järvi, Michael Tilson Thomas, Daniel Harding, Günther Herbig, Michael Schönwandt, Osmo Vanska, Yan-Pascal Tortelier and Thierry Fischer, as well as Esa-Pekka Salonen. In addition to appearing throughout Europe and in Japan and the United States, Guy is in demand in Brazil.

As a chamber musician he has a regular partnership with the cellist Anne Gastinel, with whom he has performed and recorded the sonatas of Beethoven and Brahms; he has also worked with the Ysaye Quartet, clarinettist Michael Collins, violinist Ilya Gringolts and others. “It is very enjoyable to meet friends and play music together,” says Guy, “but I wouldn’t say it was a highly significant part of my development. It is more of a breathing space between the pressure of recitals and concertos. And for that reason it is important. Chamber music in the 19th century was approached as music between friends, so why not play it in that spirit?”

Guy’s recordings for Näive include Brahms’s Second Concerto, Liszt’s B Minor Sonata, Prokofiev’s Sonatas Nos 6 and 8, and his acclaimed second recording of the Hammerklavier. He is currently recording the Beethoven Piano Concertos with conductor Philippe Jordan. “Over the next five or six years I will be concentrating very much on the Beethoven Sonatas and Concertos,” says Guy, who has learnt the sonatas one by one over several years. “The way I built my repertoire was logical and methodical. It might appear to have been a winding path, but in the end, everything is in order.”