A hint of what was to come was the fervent applause from the packed Albert Hall audience that greeted Marin Alsop as she made her way on to the podium, of a warmth rarely experienced by this seasoned Proms goer. But this was nothing compared to the outpouring of delight that broke out at the conclusion of Montero's mesmerising account of the Grieg. Since the applause showed no signs of dying down, she took up a microphone to invite any member of the audience to sing the first line of his or her favourite song for her to improvise on. Confronted with an unaccustomed wall of silence from the usually boisterous promenaders (yet never having been put on the spot like this), she sat down again at the piano and improvised for ten minutes on the theme of Land of Hope and Glory. The audience knew it was in the presence of a very special talent.
The second concert of popular music saw Montero's return to improvise for another ten minutes on some of the classics of Brazilian popular music including "the Girl from Ipanema', moments of calm and tenderness amidst the raucous blaring of the brasses and pulsating rhythms in the jazz band. There seemed to be no stopping the stream of encores proceeding from the combined forces of the two orchestras and one could only marvel at the energy and enthusiasm emanating from the tiny figure of Alsop as she egged the musicians onto one more riff.
Montero's memorable performance followed the account of another romantic masterpiece, Liszt's thunderously virtuosic first piano concerto, by her mentor, Martha Argerich, under the baton of fellow Argentine Daniel Barenboim. That was the highpoint of last week, though the Venezuelan conductor, Rafael Payare, made his Proms debut on Sunday with the Ulster Orchestra. Next comes the other Venezuelan conductor, the charismatic, Gustavo Dudamel with his Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, that has now become a permanent fixture at the Proms. Barenboim will then be returning to the Albert Hall on 5 September to conduct the Berlin Staatskapelle Orchestra from the keyboard in Mozart's Piano concerto No 24.
As a footnote, Montero says that when she has finished her current tour she will go home, have a rest and don her Amnesty International hat to continue the struggle for democracy and human rights in her native Venezuela.
