The reclusive Portuguese pianist Maria Joćo Pires no longer gives solo recitals if she can avoid it, and then only in intimate surroundings. For the Proms to persuade her to perform solo to several thousand people was therefore something of a coup.

On paper, too, it was an inspired idea to present a programme of Chopin Nocturnes in her late-night slot. But that was to reckon without the constant punctuation by nervous, unnecessary coughing, not to mention the anti-social owner of the mobile phone whose ringtone trilled its pestilential descant over the final rapt bars of the last piece in the programme.

Pires is known for her rejection of a saccharine approach to Chopin, and in this selection of Nocturnes we had an appropriately fiery outburst in the minor middle section of the F major, op.15 no.1, a similarly capricious central passage in the placid C sharp minor, op.27 no.1, and ubiquitous characteristic touches of genius.

Often Pires takes the listener unawares with her flights of fancy within paired phrases. The overall context, however, remains one of enraptured calm and supreme delicacy, even if this was necessarily a general impression, given the evaporation of tone in such a vast space.
This was sublime playing by any standards, compromised only by the questionable suitability of the hall for the occasion.

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