Guy describes himself as “a Dostoyevsky fanatic”, though he also enjoys 20th-century American writers including Henry Miller and Truman Capote. “I recently discovered the very controversial French writer Michel Houellebecq, and was completely taken by his way of thinking, despite the blatantly provocative style. In my opinion, Plateforme or La possibilité d’une île should be read by all of us, because I think that his way of describing the decline of Western civilisation – one of my preoccupations – is astonishing.”

Guy is also an avid reader of books about composers and the memoirs of other performing musicians. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that I derive practical help from these books,” he says. “The way you are inspired by a text is very mysterious. I’m not pretending that because I’ve read that a composer was drinking a beer every morning I have a better understanding of his themes.

“But it’s valuable to be aware of the period the music was composed, and of the other artists who were active at that time. For example: when Schumann met Brahms for the first time and wrote an article about the new genius who had arrived; or the way Liszt worked to make Berlioz or Wagner more popular. It’s background – bouillon de culture, we say, ‘cultural soup’! It doesn’t mean it will solve all your problems on the keyboard, but I always recommend my students to read about music and musicians.”