Prom 5: Abduraimov/BBC NOW, Royal Albert Hall, London, review: The tempo of the first movement of Abduraimov's performance was too slow

The Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov performed Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto while the BBC National Orchestra of Wales made its first Proms appearance of the season, with Principal Conductor Thomas Søndergård

The Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov performed Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto (Nissor Abdourazakov)

The young Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov’s touring schedule doesn’t often bring him to London, so it was a treat to get him playing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2 in C minor at the Proms: at 26, he is the most perfectly accomplished pianist of his generation, and this work usually fits him like a glove.

But the tempo of the first movement was too slow: he gave the opening flourishes a lovely resonance, but the first theme felt sluggish. And although his articulation was immaculate, he did not at first project enough to cut through the orchestra; it was only towards the end of the moderato that he really asserted his presence. But the adagio was exquisite, with the piano’s limpid figurations offset by solo flute, and with the movement opening like a flower. And in the final allegro he came into his own with a bravura display of mercurial brilliance. In his encore, a rarely-performed Tchaikovsky Nocturne, we got a reminder of his magic as a recitalist.

The rest of this concert saw the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in top form under Thomas Sondergard’s direction: Sibelius’s Symphony No 7 in C major and Shostakovich’s Symphony No 10 in E minor emerged pristine in their very different colours.