It is obvious from Guy’s choice of repertoire that he avoids music that is over-familiar or even hackneyed. When he lists his favourite Mozart Concertos, for example, he misses out K467, with its renowned slow movement. “I’m not afraid of familiar works,” he insists, “but I always notice that composers gave of their best, not in completely unknown pieces, but in the pieces which I could characterise as being not immediately ‘easy’ for the listener.

“I take the example of Rachmaninov, a composer I am not particularly fond of. But one or two times a year I play Rachmaninov. His Second Piano Concerto is known worldwide; it’s his most famous work. But the Etudes-Tableaux Op 39, or even the First Piano Concerto, or the Paganini Rhapsody, use the same techniques as the Second Concerto but in a much more developed, complex and sophisticated way. The harmonies create much greater atmosphere and fervour.

“The Second and Fifth Piano Concertos of Prokofiev go so much further than the Third. But few people can grasp their complexities at first hearing, which is why they will never be as popular.

“You can’t say that Mozart’s K467 is in any way a second-rate work! But 466 and 482 announce the coming of Beethoven in a stronger way. So in that case it is just my personal feeling – Beethoven is the Alpha and Omega. In my way of thinking there were composers who anticipated Beethoven and those who followed Beethoven.