François Pineau-Benois (violin),
Adam Szokolay (piano)
Beethoven – two sonatas
Borodin – Wild Polovtsian Dances
FRIDAY 6th June 2025, 7.30pm, St. Botolph’s Church, Trunch.
The Pineau-Benois – Szokolay Duet, winners of the grand prix at the 2019 Pro Music International Competition (Paris), is highly regarded by the public in France, Hungary and other countries: the musicians are qualified as “young virtuosos” by the Figaroscope, complimented for the expressiveness of their playing by the Journal Francophone de Budapest. Their concert at the Salle Cortot in November 2019 ended with a standing ovation from the audience. In March 2020 they performed live on Dutch Radio from Concertgebouw chamber hall.
In March 2022 they received a standing ovation at the Francophone Festival in Budapest and recorded a programme of French Romantic music at Hungarian Radio Bartok.
During the seasons 2022-2023-2024 they were acclaimed in the Cortot hall in Paris and the Chamber Hall of Liszt Memorial Museum in Budapest. The musicians manage to harmoniously combine their respective heritage of Hungarian, French and Russian music continuing Liszt, Debussy, Ravel and Bartok traditions.
The Duet is composed of musicians trained in prestigious European schools: the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP) for the violinist François Pineau-Benois and the Liszt Academies of Budapest and Weimar for the pianist Adam Szokolay.
PROGRAMME
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata for violin and piano in F major, Op.24 “Spring”
Sonata for violin and piano in A minor, Op.23
Interval
Alexander Borodin: Wild Polovtsian Dances, from Prince Igor opera (1887)
M. Ravel: La vallée des cloches, from Miroirs (1905)
Béla Bartók: Rhapsody No. 1 for violin and piano, BB 94a
Winner of the 2019 Bartók World Competition in Budapest and a Junior Prima Prize recipient, Ádám Szokolay has given concerts throughout Europe and North America, in such venues as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Salle Cortot in Paris, the National Philharmonic Hall in Vilnius, the Great Hall of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music and the Palace of Arts in Budapest. A passionate chamber musician, he has participated in international festivals like the Villa Musica Festival in Mainz, the Encuentro di Música in Santander, Spain… As a soloist, he has appeared with the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Savaria-, Győr- and Miskolc Symphony Orchestras, the Budapest Strings and the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra among others, with such conductors as János Kovács, Domonkos Héja, Mátyás Antal. Szokolay is regularly invited to hold solo recitals in the Franz Liszt Memorial Museum and the Béla Bartók Memorial House in Budapest. He was invited for live Broadcast at BBC and Mezzo TV.
With his chamber duet partner, violinist François Pineau-Benois they have given concerts throughout Europe.
Szokolay studied at the Bard College Conservatory of Music in New York, the Franz Liszt Hochschule für Musik in Weimar and the Mozarteum University in Salzburg with Peter Serkin, Grigory Gruzman and Imre Rohmann. Szokolay is based in Budapest, where he recently completed his Master’s degree in the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. under Dénes Várjon and András Kemenes. He has participated in the master classes with György Kurtág, Ferenc Rados, Zoltán Kocsis, Rita Wagner. Winner of numerous international competitions he was awarded the special prize of the Kocsis-Hauser Foundation in Hungary for his artistic work.
Concert violinist François Pineau- Benois, is nicknamed by the international press “French virtuoso” and recognized today by French musicians as one of “Grand French bow players”. He worked with Regis Pasqueir, Maxim Vengerov, Salvatore Accardo and Mauricio Fuks. François is a laureate of fiercely competitive carrier grants of Fondation Banque Populaire and Safran for Music (2017), Adami and Culture Moves Europe EU (2023), Telepart of Finnish Institute in Paris (2022), and of prizes from several international competitions: such as Léopold Mozart Competition in Augsbourg, Glazunov Competition in Paris… and others.
He has performed as a soloist with symphony orchestras abroad and in France on several occasions. He has been invited by France Musique, Dutch Radio and Radio Bartok for live broadcasts. He has played at prestigious stages and festivals as Cortot Hall, Grand Salon des Invalides in Paris, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, festival of Radio France in Montpelier, festival Auvers-sur-Oise, Gstadt New Year Festival, in the countries as France, UK, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel and others… His first CD with Philia Trio is nominated by France Musique (2022). His second CD 24 caprices of Paganini has been just issued in December 2024 and has become “ popular classical product” in FNAC. He collaborates with contemporary composers and makes world premiere of concerto for violon and string by Jarno Vanhanen composed for him (2024). François Pineau-Benois plays historical violin “Genève” (XVIII) of French virtuoso Lucien Durosoir, let him by MEGEP foundation. He is professor at Rachmaninoff Conservatory in Paris.
