If there is one thing Wagner would surely have hated, it is concert performances of his operas. Of all opera composers, Wagner was the most notoriously obsessed with achieving a perfect synthesis of music, speech and drama. He wrote his librettos himself, and his scores are littered with stage and set directions. But some of these are so monumental and apocalyptic that they were evidently never intended to be realised on stage, so there seems little point in being fussy about authenticity.

Mark Elder's decision to give a concert performance of act one of Tristan and Isolde, therefore, is arguably as legitimate a way to present Wagner as any. It is part of his wider project to bring opera to the Bridgewater Hall, and several operatic events are scheduled for next season. Inevitably, some of the excitement of a staged production is lost. Although some conductors opt for semi-staging, with a bit of interaction between the singers, Elder did not. Given that this is the most psychologically complex and tense act of the most erotically charged opera ever written, it seemed absurd that Tristan and Isolde never got within more than three feet of each other.

But the performance was extremely fine. The rich and versatile voice of Swedish soprano Katarina Dalayman was ideally suited to the role of Isolde, able to switch from exquisite sarcasm to passion in a moment. Richard Decker's strong Tristan balanced Dalayman's nuanced characterisation well, playing the unconvincingly dutiful knight to her Isolde.

The secondary characters were slightly less impressive. Anne-Marie Owens was a solicitous Brangäne, though she lacked Dalayman's rich German consonants, and the role of the youthful, impetuous Kurwenal was rather heavily sung by Matthew Best. But the tenors and basses of the Hallé chorus were outstanding, bringing their full weight to bear on the tragically inappropriate rejoicing at the end of act one.