At Cheltenham's Piano Day, recitals at the Pittville Pump Room by Llyr Williams and Sarah Nicolls suggested that they are the younger generation's most exciting pianists. Andras Schiff got a bigger audience for his recital at the town hall, but there was a predictability about his approach that made this a less than riveting affair. Save for a vivid performance of Bartok's suite Out of Doors and one or two luminous moments in the Adagio of Beethoven's Sonata in A, Op 101, Schiff's delivery was mechanical and abstracted to the point of soullessness.

There may be an austerity of manner in Llyr Williams, but his playing has a passionate intensity that makes his intellectual rigour anything but abstract. His opening Bach/Busoni Chaconne in D minor was a tour de force, for which Peter Dickinson's new Bach in Blue then proved a neat foil. But it is Williams's command of keyboard colour that is always so impressive, and in this respect Debussy's Estampes and Scriabin's Fifth Sonata were as poetic as they were virtuosic.

Sarah Nicolls brings a rare and radiant commitment to her focus on the contemporary repertoire. Three works by Niccolo Castiglioni framed her recital, with extremes of percussiveness as convincing as the gossamer delicacy. The very different characters of George Benjamin's Six Canonic Preludes, Shadowlines, were lucidly conveyed, as was the subtle resonance of Oliver Knussen's tribute to Takemitsu, Prayer Bell Sketch. Colin Matthews's Three Preludes, written for Nicolls, exploited brilliantly her pianism as well as her natural expressivity.

Nicolls also premiered Brett Dean's Equality. Even if the task of simultaneously delivering the words of Michael Leunig defeated her (they were intoned by Francesca Sciacca) the point was made: Nicolls is equal to both the task and to the men.

· The Cheltenham festival continues until Sunday. Box office: 01242 227979.