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CONCERTI RAVEL Piano Concerto in G major ‘François-Frédéric Guy was the thoughtful soloist in Ravel's G major Piano Concerto, delicately colouring the opening movement, expressive in the adagio and maintaining a rhythmic keenness in the finale without letting it collapse into a free-for-all.’ PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto
No 2 ‘With François-Frédéric Guy as soloist,
there was no likelihood of the piece sounding rough-edged or bombastic.
He brought equivocal poise to the twin themes of the Andantino, such
that the cadenza transformed material with a keen sense of exploding
its previous containment.
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No 4 ‘Full of youthful fire, and a touch impatient with it, he took quite a robust approach in the first movement to this most lyrical of the concertos, while demonstrating sensitivity and control in the enigmatic slow movement, and a delightful quicksilver dexterity in the finale. His performance went down very well indeed.’
BRAHMS Piano Concerto No 1 ‘With Tadaaki Otaka setting the right tone of stirring drama from the outset and with Guy's reflective first entry offering the proper counterbalance, the process of engagement was already underway. Guy has a very considerable technique and a clarity of thinking, both prerequisites for Brahms (Piano Concerto No 1), and this proved to be a performance of real nobility, with pounding climaxes carefully measured, but still effecting an element of spontaneity. In the central adagio, orchestra and soloist vied for the most spellbinding pianissimo and the tightly reined energy of the rondo was a perfect foil to that tension.’
BRAHMS Piano Concerto No 2 ...with François-Frédéric Guy as soloist, there was no likelihood of the piece sounding rough-edged or bombastic. He brought equivocal poise to the twin themes of the Andantino, such that the cadenza transformed material with a keen sense of exploding its previous containment. Initially passive in support, Salonen ensured the climactic return of the opening motif was balefully majestic - matching Guy in the coruscating agility brought to the scherzo and the sardonic wit of the Intermezzo, whose suave sense of the grotesque can seldom have been more convincingly rendered. The oddly-constituted variations on a Tchaikovskian theme that largely comprises the final Allegro had a finely-judged momentum, with the return of the movement's initial toccata music no mere closing flourish, but an integrated - even inevitable - end to this most wilfully impressive of twentieth-century concertos. Following his often-convincing account of Brahms’ D minor in Birmingham earlier this year, Guy is clearly a pianist with much to contribute to the still-too-limited concerto repertoire.
RECITALS ‘In the past few years, the young French pianist François-Frédéric Guy has shown outstanding command of some of the most challenging sonatas in the repertoire. But he opened his Wigmore Hall recital on Saturday with Beethoven's comparatively modest two-movement Sonata in E minor, Op 90, and brought to its opening movement unusual breadth, with generous phrasing and a wide dynamic range.’ ‘Anyone hearing him for the first time must have recognised that here was a big as well as a very polished player. The pairing with Beethoven's Op 109 sonata was effective, and Guy's sweeping conception of the first movement was impressive. The passionate prestissimo of the second movement was generously pedalled, too, but with an exciting sense of wrath held in check.’
WASHINGTON ‘Liszt's Benediction was sheer revelation, the music's shimmering, airy textures outlined with the delicacy that Monet conveyed in his pink and blue views of the Rouen Cathedral. Guy turned Schumann's wretched suffering into a paean of consolation. Even in the seething stretches, the pianist never let Schumann's string of variations lose their rapturous theme. Beethoven's Waldstein was given an epic scope, the Allegro's chief theme evolving into conflicting masses of sounds wrestling in titanic fury - and written while he was also composing the Eroica Symphony. Guy's observance of the composer's momentous silences made the performance all the more breathtaking.
RECORDINGS Op106 ‘Hammerklavier’ recording selected by BBC Radio 3 CD Review as the best of any currently available - 28 October 2006 The New York Times ‘In performance it often sounds just as hard as it is. But not on the new recording by François-Frédéric Guy. This 37-year-old French pianist captures the audaciousness and wild flights of the score and plays brilliantly. Yet there is remarkable clarity and poise in his performance. Textures are clear; every note speaks; no detail is fudged.’ The Times ‘Guy plays Beethoven like an old friend. His touch is assured and familiar, yet not afraid to step outside formulaic convention. The Pathétique has an introspective quality as if Guy were confiding simple truths. His account of the Hammerklavier is naturally more robust. The opening and adagio sostenuto exude confidence, while the dazzling scherzo shows off his extraordinarily virtuosic abilities. His subsequent embrace of Op 49 No 1 has an almost impertinent familiarity, cheekiest in the throwaway brilliance of the rondo allegro.’ The Guardian ‘It has been argued that no single interpretation can exhaust the sonata's possibilities, though Guy's is a formidable performance that grows in depth and stature as it progresses, with a particularly searching account of the Adagio, its spiritual uncertainties eventually swept away by the tremendous assertion he brings to the final fugue.’ Diapason ‘On retrouve ici toutes les qualitiés du précédent enregistrement de François-Frédéric Guy, qui illustrait bien l'irrésistible basculement du langage beethovénien, le dépassement musical et instrumental que cette oeuvre représente. Aujourd'hui, viennent s'y ajouter non pas plus d'aisance (la domination du texte, naguèe admirable, est intacte) mais plus d'homogénéité grâce à des tempos élargis dans les mouvements extrêmes, et resserrés dans l'Adagio, grâce aussi à plus proximité dans l'expression - sauf la Fugue finale qui demeure assez distanciée. Progressivement, François-Frédéric Guy se rapproche des légendes (serkin, Guilels) qui, à force de remettre comme lui leur Hammerklaview sur le métier, ont fini par en transcender toute la dimension intellectuelle et humaine.'
BRAHMS Piano Concerto No 2 / Naive ’Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto is one of the most testing works in the Romantic repertoire, but François-Frédéric Guy is a confident, positive soloist. He brings granite-like power to the work, both physically – making a huge, yet never unlovely, sound – and intellectually though he is also poised, poetic and sensitive where necessary. And he is aided greatly by the wisdom and affection of Paavo Berglund’s conducting.’ LISZT Recital DVD 'François-Frédéric Guy, a rapidly rising pianistic star, devotes his recital to Liszt. Here is no salonish alternative to seriousness but a lovingly protracted sense of ardour and contemplation. Nothing is taken for granted and the entire recital is a far cry from the theatrical image of Liszt of popular imagination. Guy is already a deeply serious and poetic Lisztian’ PROKOFIEV Piano Sonatas 6 & 8 / Naive ‘I’m happy to hail Guy’s version as a new benchmark, for who could imagine more impressive playing? His fingers are steely, his sound impeccably polished. Guy builds up the first movement of the Sixth inexorably, and gives the Allegretto second movement a chiselled finish. In the very slow waltz of the third movement he reaches depths which are as black as hell, while in the finale his playing is so strong, you feel he would carry on playing if you threw a grenade at him. |