52
T
he International Pharos Chamber Music Fes-
tival has established itself as the most im-
portant annual classical music event on the island
and has gained an international reputation for its
quality concerts and magnificent settings. Guided
by a visionary spirit and dedicated to artistic ex-
cellence and innovation, the Festival attracts over
2,000 visitors every year. It also maintains a strong
tradition of community service, with educational
concerts organised for students of public schools
and a number of master-classes for young instru-
mentalists.
Organised from 23 until 31 May 2014, the
14
th
In-
ternational Pharos Chamber Music Festival
wel-
comed to Cyprus some of the most remarkable art-
ists of the international music scene for an exten-
sive week of music-making in two unique venues
in Cyprus: The Royal Manor House in Kouklia
– one of the finest surviving monuments of Frank-
ish architecture in Cyprus and a UNESCO World
Heritage site – and The Shoe Factory, a contempo-
rary recital venue situated in Ermou Street near the
buffer zone in Nicosia.
Piano recital by François-Frédéric Guy
The
14
th
International Pharos Chamber Music
Festival
opened with a piano recital with François-
FrédéricGuy on 23May 2014 at The Shoe Factory,
Nicosia. Regarded as one of the most fascinating
pianists of his generation, François-Frédéric Guy
is especially renowned for his giant
Beethoven
project, which included recording and performing
in concert all 32 Ludwig van Beethoven Sonatas
and the 5 Piano Concertos. For his first recital
in Cyprus, which was organised in collaboration
with the Institute Français Chypre, François-Fré-
déric Guy performed excerpts from Franz Liszt’s
Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses
and Achille-
Claude Debussy’s
Preludes Book II
, as well as one
of the most influential piano sonatas ever written
- Beethoven’s
Sonata No. 32 in C minor
.
François-Frédéric Guy has performed worldwide
with many important orchestras such as the Berlin
Symphony, Hallé, Philharmonia, London Philhar-
monic, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris,
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Or-
chestre du Capitole de Toulouse and San Francis-
co Symphony, to name just a few. He collaborated
with world renowned conductors including Esa-
Pekka Salonen, Bernard Haitink, Kazushi Ono,
Marc Albrecht, Philippe Jordan, Daniel Harding,
Neeme Järvi and Michael Tilson Thomas.
In recital, he has performed in the major concert
halls in cities including London, Milan, Berlin,
Munich, Moscow, Paris, Vienna and Washington,
and at festivals including La Roque d’Anthéron
International Piano Festival, Chopin in Warsaw,
International Beethoven Festival Bonn, Lucerne,
AlpenKLASSIK in Bad Reichenhall, Festival
International de Colmar, Printemps des Arts de
Monte-Carlo, and Cheltenham Festival.
In 2008, Guy embarked on his
Beethoven
project.
Guy is a dedicated chamber musician and he reg-
ularly performs Beethoven’s chamber music for
strings and piano with Tedi Papavrami and Xavier
14
th
International Pharos Chamber Music Festival
