Even the best stage productions of the Nutcracker are uneven. The fault lies with the piece itself: up to the interval it is a proto-Freudian coming-of-age narrative, while the second half is all-dancing confectionery. The imbalance is less apparent in the concert hall, yet performances of Tchaikovsky’s complete score (as opposed to the popular suite that preceded the ballet’s premiere) are comparatively rare.

For all the ubiquity of its melodies, the Nutcracker contains some startling harmonic and colouristic advances; and the eye-catching young conductor Andrew Gourlay broke through the sweetened crust of cliche as if smashing the glaze on a creme brulee.

Gourlay – a former trombonist who spent a couple of seasons assisting Mark Elder at the Hallé – conducted with the lightest of touches that paradoxically revealed Nutcracker’s kernel of darkness. The gravid descent of the pas de deux swelled with the composer’s raw grief for the recent death of his sister. Even the introduction of the celesta – an invention so new Tchaikovsky that requested that his publisher keep it under his hat – sounded less like a jaded Christmas-jingle box than the ethereal chimes that must have startled the original audience.

It helped that the orchestra were clearly in the mood for fun. It’s not often that a first violinist is asked to double on cuckoo whistle, while the brass section managed to hold admirable intonation through a pair of red plastic trumpets. Though it would have been too much to expect the Hallé’s budget to stretch to a boys’ choir for the wordless “ah-ah” accompaniment to the Waltz of the Snowflakes, the female members of the orchestra gamely sang the parts themselves.

• The concert is repeated on 11 and 14 December; the 14 December concert is broadcast live on Radio 3. Venue: Bridgewater Hall.