The Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero already has quite a following. In recital, she has a penchant for asking audience members to sing her a tune and improvising impressive rhapsodies from whatever symphony or soap opera theme they come up with.

As a conventional concerto soloist, however, she may be less striking - that is certainly what this performance of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2 with the Philharmonia suggested. Montero managed to put across Rachmaninov's music with little of her own feeling or personality showing through. In the slow movement there was not enough introspection to conjure real magic, and Benjamin Zander's pedestrian conducting did not help, though he had created some excitement towards the end of the opening movement as he pushed the orchestra onwards.

Zander himself began the second half with a long spiel that first, in romanticised, simplified fashion, told the story of Shostakovich as tragic victim of the state, then explained the question of whether the composer intended the final pages of the Fifth Symphony as a triumphant fast march or a despairing slow one. But if a conductor says he hopes to lay such a matter to rest then and there, the ensuing performance has to be a blinder.

And this wasn't. The playing was very competent, especially the flute solos offering extremes of light and dark after the forceful climax of the first movement. And the second movement began with winning exuberance, a rustic stomp with vodka on its breath. Yet Zander, concentrating on the big picture, let details pass us by, ignoring some of the quiet harmonic shifts that twist the knife in the slow movement.

And, yes, the final pages were more drawn out than usual, sounding bitter and weary, and undeniably putting a new slant on the work. But after such a colourless build-up, even the usual fast finish might not have sounded so exultant anyway.