With its glass-and-metal exterior and state-of-the-art acoustics in a 1,000-seat auditorium, the sleek Paul & Henri Carnal Hall seems fit for a leading global metropolis. But while it attracts top international musicians, the building nestles like a grounded spacecraft in the tiny Swiss town of Rolle on Lake Geneva.

It is the most eye-catching recent addition to the Institut Le Rosey, one of the most expensive and elite schools in the world. Sitting in its own 28-hectare park, the school has tennis courts, swimming pools, stables and a farm that flank buildings centred on a remodelled 14th-century castle. Off-site, it owns a campus in the Alps and a yacht berthed on the Mediterranean.

With fees of more than $100,000 a year, Le Rosey claims to offer a rounded, multicultural “school for life” to a tight network of students. It merits scrutiny as one of an exclusive group of high-charging institutions, at a time of debate over rising inequality and the emergence of a new class of rich sealed off from the rest of society.