BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/Noseda, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

A musical triathlon of epic proportions

Gianandrea Noseda, shortly to become principal conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, opened Manchester's Commonwealth Games music festival with a performance of Mahler's Symphony No 8 – the cultural equivalent of an ironman triathlon. Around him on the Bridgewater Hall stage and thronged high in the galleries were an augmented BBC Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus and Youth Chorus and the Bach Choir, while the small brass group – poised throughout to blast out the "Veni, creator spiritus" theme heard at the very start of the symphony – was isolated behind a pocket of the audience in the circle. No wonder the "Symphony of a Thousand" never fails to impress on the grand scale.

In choosing to set the final scene of Goethe's great German drama Faust, preceded by the ninth-century Latin hymn "Veni, creator spiritus", Mahler faced his biggest compositional challenge. Conducting it poses about as great a problem, as Mahler crams more into this single two-movement symphony than many composers into 10. So much rests on pacing the work's sections, retaining momentum until the extravagant apotheosis, and combining musical precision with emotional flexibility.

Noseda, who proved triumphantly that he has the discipline, focus and endurance to bring off a work of such epic proportions, drew an impressive flood of choral tone at the thrilling opening of the "Veni, creator spiritus". Children and adults sang with tremendous conviction, especially in the arresting outburst "Accende lumen sensibus" and at the glorious ascending choral ending of the first movement – and had sufficient reserves to produce an overwhelming volume of angelic sound at the work's climax some 60 minutes later. That the solo singers were too often less than audible from their positions behind the orchestra detracted slightly from Mahler's calculated sonorities, and listeners to Monday's broadcast on Radio 3 may have had the advantage here.

By the end of the first part, delivered by Noseda with the unswerving urgency of a zealot, it was evident that his interpretation was veering towards the operatic. However complex or obscure the message of the weightier second part (heavenly compassion for mankind and Faust's quest for the all-redeeming qualities of the "Eternal Feminine"), there's no mistaking Mahler's highly theatrical gestures.

In the colour and texture Noseda drew from the orchestra, from the veiled tones of the evocative little prelude through the sweet lyricism of the more tender passages to the intensity of the final bars, every detail was outstandingly articulated, especially in the instrumental solos. Of the line-up of soloists, in which the female voices created a good rapport and sounded consistently more secure than the male, Irene Theorin was particularly impressive in showing the strength and expression demanded by this pinnacle of vocal writing.