Beethoven à la française: Xavier Phillips and François-Frédéric Guy at Kings Place

Yip Wing-sie and the HK Sinfonietta show admirable qualities in their Beethoven cycle. François-Frédéric Guy plays a splendid Third Piano Concerto but Anne Queffélec is disconnected from the orchestra in the Fourth.

With only the latest composition by Tristan Murail acting as a palate-cleanser, this was a recital by a leading French pianist that was full of Romantic power and passion in works by Chopin and Beethoven.

Will this centenary year yield a finer Vaughan Williams symphony performance than this account of the Fourth? 

A (nearly) complete set of Beethoven’s works for cello and piano from the French friends in London. 

French pianists François-Fréderic Guy and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet returned to London’s Wigmore Hall to present a programme of three 20th century orchestral scores transcribed for two pianos. 

Outside of the opera pit, Marc Albrecht and his Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra demonstrated their magic at the Concertgebouw.