This was the sort of programme you only encounter at the Proms — a performance of all five of Prokofiev’s piano concertos in one evening. To hear the chatter on the streets beforehand you might have thought the audience was about to undergo an endurance test. In fact, the duration was approximately that of a middle-period Verdi opera, albeit without any narrative arc or character development.
From the modernist dazzle of the first and second concertos to the glamorous neo-classicism of the fifth, Prokofiev could not escape the twin curses of his virtuosity as a pianist and facility as an orchestral colourist.
With the conductor, Valery Gergiev, in semi-detached mode, and the soloists Daniil Trifonov, Sergei Babayan and Alexei Volodin busily negotiating figures tailored mostly