It apparently seems difficult for some to imagine that spending 8 or 10 hours every day at a piano is a serious job. It also apparently seems difficult for some to imagine that there is an aesthetic and intellectual research and that this is not just about pushing the right keys at the right time… I reassure you, being musician is a profession with many facets, taking up 100% of our time and asking a lot of work.

In the same vein, imagine for a moment the situation: you are invited to a dinner where at the back of the host’s living room is standing a piano… and suddenly it’s a drama, someone exclaims: “Are you going to play us something?” No way! The piano is often not tuned or in a so miserable state that it is almost unplayable, and in any case, is it really polite to ask a guest to work? It would not cross my mind to invite a friend surgeon and ask him to remove me an unsightly melanoma immediately with a kitchen knife as only instrument.

These little comments or situations, which have the knack of irritating musicians are legion… If today I (almost?) do not hear them anymore, it’s because I do not have much time to get out of my “jar”, within which everyone knows what I’m doing. A few years ago, I also had to face this fact and this is not always easy. Have mercy on us, simple musicians, think before speaking too much and good luck to you newbies, this will end up tailing off!

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The first shock when recording is a bit like the one you feel when hearing your own voice for the first time. Years later, I still find it hard to bear. Indeed, even if you have spent whole years working on planned works, you have never heard them from the microphones perspective. In short, you do not really know how it sounds like for the audience. You have an idea of it, you work so that it sounds as you want in the concert hall, but the microphone is the moment of truth! No one can be more objective than it is.

The editing process is a fantastic thing, but it destroys the music cohesion. Technically, you can edit almost anything, but musically, it does not always fit: different tempi, different dynamics, different intentions, outside noise, atmosphere… The editing can help correct some little mistakes, but overall, I avoid it. I would rather corroborate Samson François’ words: “let the bad notes, it’s nice.” Not always easy to find a balance between technical and musical perfection with an imperfect intermediary.

Recording is a lot of work: if certain imperfections are tolerated in a concert, the disc or recording can be heard several times: you can therefore be sure that there was at one time or another a mistake. It is thus necessary to make a perfect work, thus not human. A little example: Pollini’s recordings. I have long sought the origin of their coldness: it’s a consequence of their absolute perfection. You can not criticize Pollini’s recordings, there is nothing to say, it’s perfect, thus not very human. The audience has become accustomed to this superhuman perfection, and this superhuman perfection has become a standard, in studios or on stage. Too bad, I liked these pianists, who were more humans than playing machines, with their weaknesses, their points of view and their own style…

I digress. On monday, I sat at the piano with 4 microphones and my producer as only audience. Correcting, listening, repeating, improving, discussing, trying to relax a bit, we lived for one ultimate goal: producing a quality recording without stress since there is no planned release. I also had other aims: little or no editing and no sound correction. We will see what happens after post-production! I will share with you some of the tracks when available.

Till then, time to work!

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Except some pieces, Chopin wrote almost exclusively for the piano and was able to push the limits of his instrument. The studies, op. 10 and 25, are still the number one reference in terms of difficulty, especially when it comes to playing both opuses on stage. The whole point of these studies is their undeniable musical value: While insisting on a technical difficulty, Chopin expresses a genuine musical idea. Unlike its predecessors (eg Clementi), the Polish composer gave his letters of nobility to the “study” form, considering it as a serious piece and presentable in concert, and will then be followed by Liszt, Scriabin and Rachmaninoff, among others.

Chopin, who was a lover of the bel canto, especially the bellinian one, never considered the piano as an orchestra but as a voice. In his studies, no breaking chords and no thundering octaves à la Liszt, but his voice, coupled with much deeper and less demonstrative difficulties: nothing easy nothing free. Chopin’s studies are essential: they allow to gain a solid and free technique, but also to master the complexity of a refined musical discourse just as the composer’s one.

When I was younger, their name alone made me shudder. I fought them so much! With hindsight, I think I was trying to fit the study into my fingers rather than fitting the pianist into the study. Today, with a little more experience, I realize that my approach was wrong. These studies are so fun to play that I wonder why I did not understand immediately what to do… The main thing is that I finally settled (or, that I am settling) the score with them! I can now sleep in peace, Chopin’s studies, I don’t fear of you!

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In the picture opposite, the view from “my” classroom at the conservatoire: the classroom number 74.

As you can see, the classroom 74, my professor František Maxián’s one, has an unobstructed view of the Prague Castle, the river Vltava and Malá Strana neighborhood. What a joy to work in such a beautiful setting! A bit of pianistic melancholy and I just have to turn my head to be immersed in the beauty of a city that everyone admire. Sometimes, when looking out of the window, I imagine Kafka, Mozart and Smetana strolling along the banks of the Vltava. This clear and (so) beautiful view is a miracle that allows me to practice calmly!

I like this room, I find refuge there. The two pianos are not really good, it is not particularly pretty, but I won many battles and I still have many thoughts there. This is my little laboratory: my life as a pianist has developed between its walls. I like to work there because I feel out of this world and rarely someone comes to interrupt me. This room is full of memories, many great pianists played there: Richter, Indjic, Maxian to mention a few.

In the back of the room, on the wall, there is this huge portrait of Rafael Kubelik, a great Czech conductor, who observes us. Sometimes I hear him saying that a pianist is like a conductor, he must understand structures and layers, but has only ten fingers and has to conduct them like if it was a whole orchestra. “Each finger is like a singing voice” Samson François said…

In the picture opposite, you can see the famous corridor of piano department. On the left wall, the portraits of former directors of the Conservatory. In the back, right after the door, there are the executive secretaries, anteroom of the Director’s office. And just next to this door, you can see on the right the bust of Antonín Dvořák, also former director of the Prague Conservatory.

So this is a part of my universe. In this room 74, I have built a good part of my musical future and I thank it for always accepting me although I sometimes mistreated it…

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All these are equally important for me, which means I do not want to classify them. I have a special relationship to them because they made me discover or love something.

As I write these few lines, I’m listening to one of them: it is Joshua Bell, Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic interpreting the violin concertos of Sibelius and Goldmark. My first encounter with the concerto of Sibelius…

But “pianistically” speaking, there are two fundamental records I listened to a lot (and still do): one of them gave me the love of Maurice Ravel, it is Samson François, André Cluytens and l’Orchestre de la Société des Conservatoires interpreting both Ravel’s concertos, and in addition Gaspard de la Nuit by Samson. The other record, it’s still Samson François, but this time with Louis Frémiaux and l’Orchestre de l’Opéra de Monte-Carlo in both Chopin’s concertos. If I sometimes find other wonderful versions, I always end up returning to them: I love this free playing with no inhibitions!

There is in my selection, an album that introduced me to the string quartet and chamber music: Schumann’s string quartets by Via Nova Quartet. Just the wonderful hornpipes in the final movement of the a minor quartet are enough to justify my choice.

My last selection is still about piano, but Ivo Pogorelich’s one this time and this famous record: Chopin’s sonata in b flat minor, Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit and Prokofiev’s Sixth sonata. Thanks to him, I have realized that there could always be something new to find in a work.

And you, do you know these records? Did they touch you?

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After the first listening, I felt an irresistible attraction to Brahms’ chamber music, which led me to the piano works of the famous bearded. I have never played much Brahms but I like to listen to his music. Aimez-vous Brahms? Yes, and I also hated him before I listened to Richter and Oistrakh.

I hope, if you do not know this version and you do not like Brahms, that Oistrakh and Richter will change your mind!

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The press center has been simplified to fit on two pages: press kit and news, which can also be followed by rss. The culture professionals area has completely disappeared: it had become unnecessary and obsolete: just ask my manager

No main change for the schedule, or audioclips (new recordings online very soon), but you’ll find a new page dedicated to videos. Discover also the new photo gallery with more pictures. Take a tour to see new features!

I hope you find this version enjoyable, if you have any comments please let us know on this page!

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When I have started listening to a lot of records, I did not know at all or knew very little about the repertoire for piano. So I primarily listened to pianists. Thanks to them, I rapidly gained knowledge of the repertoire of my instrument and started to become interested in the rest. I have also acquired a critical ear on these interpretations, trying to understand why I disliked such-and-such record. They sometimes brought me new ideas and opened my musical world.

The downside is that all these interpretations have influenced my ear. While some were good catalysts, many others prevented me from developing my own sound imagination, putting in my head already-thought sounds. Instead of searching, I have long used the “all ready” solutions offered by the record. Here is the problem though: I have long believed that knowing by heart a record means knowing the work perfectly. Rather than trying to learn from the work and draw an interpretation, I used to try to reproduce with more or less success what I already heard without really understanding the ins and outs. Without realizing it, I was standardizing my play and loosing my imagination.

Of course, it is necessary to listen to records, if only for the benefits I have mentioned, but in my approach I lacked hindsight: I was like a painter contemplating a Velasquez and wanting to reproduce the same thing. Today, I have evolved enough to search for my own style and understand that even if Velasquez fascinates me, I must not copy Velasquez, but rather try to find what makes his strength.

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© Romain Guy

After a long debate with a student about musical analysis, I needed to write a few lines on the topic. Why is musical analysis so helpful for musicians? Why do we often deny its necessity? Musical analysis: a musical strategy, I said, because it allows me to draw up a plan for each piece, each concert.

Going on stage without a strategy is really dangerous. As well as a good technician, a pianist has to be a good strategist. Giving the final blow, taking the audience from the rear, we have to think about it, and analysis helps us to carry out this important work. Where is the climax, how this piece can be divided, we do not leave this to chance, our sound strategy depends on it. We have to do this using various scale levels: a movement, a work, a program and even sometimes a whole season or career. In piano playing, there is in fact a very little space for inspiration, I know this can be a deception for some of you, but understand that this little space plays a really important role at another level.

One very often hears of lack in cohesion. Musical analysis allows us to find out how a composer builds his work, and to understand the logic integrating the different movements in a whole called his work, to finally convey this logical system to the listener.

A composer thinks in terms of structures and musical forms (among others) to give a spine to his work. The interpreter has to understand it in order to build a coherent musical composition, and has to convey to the audience the cleverness of the structure.

And you, how does analysis help you?

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I imagined that when he was big and had practiced much and well before, a pianist came to a level where only few hours of work were enough to get through the most difficult piece. I was far from the truth. Some years ago, I realized that the more the pianist’s level is high, the more time he spends on a work, being dissatisfied with the result.

I thought the pianist’s life was made of instability and permanent suprise: I later experienced the feeling of instability and finally came to the conclusion that it was blocking my work. I need to fully feel at ease to carry out my task, and only a perfect and delicate balance allows me to immerse myself entirely in my work, without having to think about anything else.

On one point, at least, I was not wrong: music is still a friend of mine, a confidante to whom I never regretted to devote my life. I know that my job is difficult, stressful and burdensome, but it is always a great pleasure to go on-stage, to introduce works and to practice alone sitting at the piano.

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