The Magnificent Beethoven

18 May 2026
7:30PM
JC Cube, Tai Kwun
250

Introduction

Join musicians from the Hong Kong Philharmonic and acclaimed pianist François-Frédéric Guy for an evening of Beethoven’s early chamber masterpieces. The Wind Octet in E flat major reveals the wit and Mozartian playfulness of the young composer. His Quintet for Piano and Winds transforms the same heroic key into a rich dialogue between piano and winds. Together, these works offer a glimpse of the aspiring hero before the storm of his middle period. 

Programme

Beethoven: Wind Octet in E flat major, Op. 103
Beethoven: Quintet in E flat major, for piano and winds, Op. 16

Creative Team List

François-Frédéric Guy

François-Frédéric Guy is widely regarded first and foremost as an outstanding interpreter of the German Romantics and their forebears. His unrivalled ability to create musical structure in sound is especially evident in his interpretations of Beethoven, which bring to life his profound and ongoing dialogue with the composer. His acclaimed performances of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas, already performed in e.g. Tokyo, Washington, Paris, Monte Carlo and Buenos Aires, will take him this season to Seoul. The pianist also has a special affinity with the music of Bartók, Brahms, Liszt, and Prokofiev and a strong commitment to contemporary music.

Conducting from the piano, François-Frédéric Guy regularly performs works by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Brahms, and latest a world premiere by Aurélien Dumont together with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, where he has been artist in residence from 2017 to 2020. The complete recording of Beethoven's piano concertos with the Sinfonia Varsovia under his direction was released to mark the start of the “Beethoven Year” 2020.

As a soloist, the pianist has been a guest of orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre de Paris or Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich and has collaborated with world-famous conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kazushi Ono, Marc Albrecht, Philippe Jordan, Neeme Järvi, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gustavo Gimeno, and Kent Nagano. In the current season, he is further invited to perform under Sakari Oramo with the BBC Symphony and will premiere Tristan Murail’s piano concerto together with NHK Symphony in Tokyo.


Piano: François-Frédéric Guy
Members of the HK Phil


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