Versailles: the masterly evening of Dali Gutserieva and Adam Gutseriev

They’re brother and sister, Russian, and spend their time conquering Europe’s finest concert halls. On April 26, 2026, cellist Dali Gutserieva and pianist Adam Gutseriev put down their bows and hands at the Opéra Royal du Château de Versailles, accompanied by the Covent Garden Sinfonietta conducted byEmmanuel Plasson. A sold-out evening, given in collaboration with DeArt Management, which will go down as one of the highlights of the spring musical season in the Paris region.

A sensational family duo

The story begins in Moscow. Dali, the eldest, was born in 1999 and took up the cello at the age of six. Six years later, her little brother Adam put his hands on a keyboard at the age of five. Today, both continue their training at the Kalaidos School of Music in Berlin, after having studied at Moscow’s leading musical institutions.

At thirteen, Dali Gutserieva won the Sviatoslav-Knushevitzky International Competition. Other distinctions followed, in New York, Paris, Salzburg, and above all the prestigious BraVo Prize, presented to her personally by tenor José Carreras. Over the years, the young cellist has performed in London, Brussels, Amsterdam and Rome, with the Royal Danish Orchestra and the Latvian Chamber Orchestra, conducted by David Geringas, Thomas Sanderling and Keri-Lynn Wilson. Today, she is on the jury of the Knushevitzky competition that launched her career.

On the piano side, his brother Adam Gutseriev has won first prizes all over Europe: Diamond Prize at the Couperin Competition in the UK, Manchester, Germany, Austria and Italy. The young pianist, still in his early twenties, has already performed in the Golden Hall of Vienna’s Musikverein, at the Dubai Opera and the Cairo Opera, alongside conductors such as Daniel Oren and Alexander Vedernikov.

The Opéra Royal, a showcase to match

There are few theaters in the world where acoustics and setting are as perfectly matched as at the Opéra Royal de Versailles. Designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel for the wedding of the future Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette in 1770, this all-blue and gold wooden theater remains one of the jewels of the Château. Audiences come here as much for the music as for the thrill of entering an exceptional venue, where the greatest performers come one after the other.

On this April evening, elegance was the order of the day. In Versailles, evenings of major concerts still offer an atmosphere that few capitals can match. And from the very first bars, we knew that the evening would live up to its billing.

Saint-Saëns, Grieg, Strauss: a romantic journey

The program was conceived as a journey through the great European Romanticism. In the first half, Dali Gutserieva performed Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1. A short work of rare intensity, in which the cello dialogues almost without respite with the orchestra. The young woman displayed a warm, full, deeply vocal sound. In the lyrical passages, her bow seemed simply to sing. In the more orchestral sections, her line held up effortlessly against the mass of the Covent Garden Sinfonietta. A committed reading, greeted by a long ovation.

Then it wasAdam Gutseriev ‘s turn to tackle Grieg’s Piano Concerto, that monument to Nordic Romanticism that everyone recognizes from the very first bars, those cascading descending chords. Here, the young pianist showed what we now insist on seeing in him: clarity of construction, elegance of touch, and that rare ability to maintain a limpid voice even in the midst of the greatest orchestral tutti. The audience was won over, and applauded for a long time.

In the second half, Emmanuel Plasson and the Covent Garden Sinfonietta devoted themselves to Richard Strauss’s Symphonic Suite from Ariadne auf Naxos. An operatic score transcribed for solo orchestra, full of color and theatricality, which seemed written to resonate under the royal panelling. The London ensemble, under the baton of the French conductor recognized as one of the world’s great ambassadors of French music, displayed the full richness of its palette.

A path to follow

What’s striking about Dali and Adam Gutseriev is less the accumulation of first prizes than the way they inhabit the stage. No gestural overkill, no posing. Just a quiet concentration, a shared confidence, and the obviousness of being where they’re supposed to be. At Versailles, the audience made no mistake: long ovations at the end of the program, and that special silence that follows great concerts, when you realize you’ve witnessed something rare.

As Dali Gutserieva pointed out on the occasion of this tour, these evenings in emblematic venues such as the Salle Gaveau and the Opéra Royal de Versailles, in collaboration with Emmanuel Plasson, were an opportunity to present audiences with a varied classical program, combining different instrumental formations.

For those who want to follow them: the duo continue their European tours accompanied by DeArt Management, the agency representing them. Vienna, Dubai, Paris, Versailles, and soon other prestigious venues. A trajectory to follow closely, for those who love to see the great performers of tomorrow emerge.