Prom 43: Argerich/WE Divan/Barenboim, Royal Albert Hall, review: 'Proms don’t come more stellar than this'

Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra would have comfortably filled the hall on their own, while Martha Argerich could have filled it three times over

Daniel Barenboim conducts the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra at the BBC Proms (BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

Proms don’t come more stellar than this. Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra would have comfortably filled the hall on their own, while Martha Argerich, now 75, could have filled it three times over. Though she’s lost none of her poetic fire or her technical brilliance, she no longer plays solo, so we have to content ourselves with the chamber and concerto performances of the world’s greatest living pianist.

She looked typically distraite wandering over to the piano for Liszt’s Piano Concerto No 1 in E flat major, but from her electrifying opening chords – followed by a passage of the sweetest lyricism – she held the audience spellbound throughout. All the qualities we have learned to cherish were there in spades as, sensitively accompanied by the Divan orchestra under Barenboim’s direction, she limned this work’s Chopinesque beauties. The delicacy of her phrasing, the silky opulence of her tone, the precision of her flying staccato octaves, and her ability to make every note carry gracefully to every corner of the auditorium – nobody else has her armoury. Then a second stool was fetched for Barenboim, and these lifelong friends gave us one of Schubert’s loveliest duets as an unforgettable encore.

Meanwhile, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra – at 16 years old, now no longer a youth orchestra – played better than I have ever heard them. They delivered the overtures of Tannhäuser and Die Meistersinger, and three excerpts from Götterdämmerung – with magnificent style and sweep.