Pavel Kolesnikov & Samson Tsoy

"Sharing a piano with four hands presupposes thinking together, breathing together. It’s a form of closeness, but on an exceptional level. You can’t reach that level without being incredibly close," says Samson Tsoy. He and our portrait artist Pavel Kolesnikov met in 2007 at the Moscow Conservatory, and they have been inseparable ever since, both on and off stage. As the opening act of the Stravinsky Festival, they perform a unique four-hand version of the Symphony of Psalms, an orchestral composition that premiered in 1930 at the Palais des Beaux-Arts. The duo pairs this neoclassical gem with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s rousing Symphonic Dances.