Beethoven 200 (Second evening)

Elias Grandy,

the German-Japanese conductor, is taking up the post of Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra from the 2026/27 season. He performs with leading orchestras, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, and collaborates with major opera houses from Oper Frankfurt to the Semperoper Dresden and Nikikai Opera Tokyo. He began his career as Kapellmeister at the Staatstheater Darmstadt and in 2015 received an award at the prestigious Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition. He is known as a passionate musical storyteller whose programmes combine the great works of the orchestral repertoire with operatic productions and are widely praised by both audiences and critics.

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet

is one of the leading French pianists of his generation. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Pierre Sancan and later refined his artistry with Paul Badura-Skoda, Nikita Magaloff, and György Sándor. Early in his career he won first prize at the International Beethoven Piano Competition in Cologne (1986) and succeeded in the Young Concert Artists auditions in New York. His extensive discography, particularly his recordings of music by Debussy, Ravel, and Prokofiev, has received numerous honours, including the Gramophone Award, BBC Music Magazine Award, and Diapason d’Or.