Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades is a study of mental instability and social dislocation. Many have seen it as retroactive, combining the seedy last gasp of Byronic romanticism with a nostalgic evocation of Russia in its Tsarist glory days. This shockingly brilliant concert performance, with Gianandrea Noseda conducting the BBC Philharmonic, turned it round 180 degrees, presenting us with a work grimly prophetic of the psychological and social upheavals of the 20th century.

A tremendous neurotic tension was apparent throughout, closer in tone to Dostoevsky than Pushkin, whose tale provides the subject. The vapid elegance with which Noseda approached Tchaikovsky's depiction of 18th-century St Petersburg exposed a false opulence, symptomatic of a society heading towards chaos. The winds of revolution are already gathering over this world, which is peopled by beings in the grip of obsessions they can never name.

Noseda trawled through the psyches of the characters with the unnerving precision of an analyst. Liza's romantic self-delusion was laid bare in swirling strings and rippling harps. The chromatic woodwind gurgles that erode the minds of Hermann and the Countess had insidious force. The playing, throughout, had a lethal precision, a reminder that the BBC Philharmonic is one of the UK's great orchestras.

The cast was largely imported from the Kirov. You could argue that Gegam Gregorian is now past his best, but in the context his rasping style was ideally suited to his depiction of the Hermann's madness. Olga Sergeeva was an exceptional Liza, hinting at unfulfilled erotic depths beneath a coolly elegant facade, while Irina Bogacheva's played the decrepit Countess as a once beautiful woman terrorised by her own memories.

Some might be fazed by the whole thing, but the mark of a truly great interpretation lies in the fact that it makes you rethink the work - and this tremendous performance did just that.