Composer: Yusupov, Benjamin (b. 1962)

Should the performer’s looks and gestures matter, or should purist listeners shut their eyes and use only their ears? In the case of today’s Gstaad chapel piano-four-hands recital by Ani and Nia Sulkhanishvili, there was no question that what you saw formed part of the show.

Question: what’s the connection between South Korea and 19th-century Bohemia? Answer: I have no idea, but there clearly is one, since Korean pianists Jaekyung Yoo and Yoon-Jee Kim play Smetana and Dvořák’s music as if they ingested it with their mothers’ milk.

Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad's opening concert for young musicians featured the Russian duo Getallo and Andreev who showed formidable technique but only came to life in the Rubinstein Piano Sonata.