LONDON -- Leonard Slatkin may not have a "sir" attached to his name, but he is a proper gentleman.

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Standing in one last time with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on its 2006 European Tour -- conductor Hans Graf finishes the rest of the tour, to Germany -- Mr. Slatkin showed remarkable generosity in a BBC Proms concert at the gargantuan Royal Albert Hall in London last night.

It's not just that he mentioned the status of Sir Andrew Davis, informing the audience that the PSO's artistic adviser (and erstwhile longtime chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra) is doing fine after bypass surgery prevented him from conducting the tour. It's that Mr. Slatkin didn't bring attention to himself.

He also is a former chief conductor of the BBC Symphony and had every right to toot his own horn. After all, he was returning to the Proms for the first time in several years and had upset his own summer plans to bail out the Pittsburgh Symphony after Sir Andrew canceled.

One could easily argue he deserved a bit of mawkishness in front of the sellout crowd. But he kept the focus where it should be, on the PSO, in its first appearance at this significant summer festival since 2003.

Even more impressive was Mr. Slatkin's handling of pianist Lang Lang, who joined the PSO to perform Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1. This was a nightmare performance for a conductor, as Lang Lang employed extreme tempo and dynamic fluctuations.

Mr. Slatkin hadn't had the chance to work with the pianist earlier in Pittsburgh, making the situation all the more difficult. But here again, generosity prevailed and Mr. Slatkin accommodated Lang Lang on nearly all of his oddities.

And odd it was. Lang Lang's approach to the piece was profoundly eccentric. He made radical shifts in tempo and dynamics, often with little sense of this fitting into a larger reading. He sometimes played so quietly it was hard to hear him. The pianist often went against the grain of the concerto to such a degree that it was less Chopin than Lang Lang we were hearing. Phrases were whimsically altered to the point of changing their nature.

Countless times the pianist inexplicably rendered an epic moment pianissimo or changed a consequent phrase radically from its antecedent, all without a musical line or overarching interpretation that made for any coherence.

I am not fussy about works having to be done in a traditional manner; I appreciate when a performer takes artistic risks. But the score is there for a reason and a stylistic performing tradition should be given some adherence. Lang Lang's interpretation was too loose.

Not that the audience members agreed with me. They cheered like crazy. But every era has its celebrity musicians, above reproach for many, though usually deserving some.

For its part, the PSO played the work a bit pedestrian -- solidly, but never inspiringly.

But that was not the case for the rest of the concert, which was another strong showing by the orchestra. It opened with Ives' Symphony No. 2 and closed with Strauss' "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks." The former was a Proms premiere that was both substantive and showy -- this time Mr. Slatkin had all three trombonists stand up to deliver the theme in the finale. "Till" showcased the virtuosity of the orchestra, both as an ensemble and individually in a clear and vibrant reading by Mr. Slatkin.

With the PSO again having to perform on a travel day -- from Cardiff, Wales, that morning -- the ensemble and verve at the concert were impressive. But it's hard not to have a little extra adrenaline when performing in front of more than 5,000 people in one of the great music capitals of the world. The atmosphere at the Albert Hall was electric, showing again why the BBC Proms is the world's most unique and vital classical music festival.