Britten's operas are everywhere this centenary year, so the prospect of a concert-hall outing for Peter Grimes, even one with Vladimir Jurowski conducting the London Philharmonic, wasn't necessarily something to get too excited about. But sometimes even performances of works that you know very well, and have heard and seen countless times, can take you completely unawares and emerge with unexpected force. This was one of those occasions.

This turned out to be more than a concert performance, too, but a semi-staging in costume (casual, more or less present-day) – directed very economically and effectively by Daniel Slater with a set made of ropes by designer Alex Doidge-Green – that made full use of the Symphony Hall platform. The sound was wonderfully vivid, and every morsel of Jurowski's interpretation – its cool, precise clarity interspersed with climaxes of frightening intensity – came across fiercely.

So did all the individual performances, with an outstanding lineup, including Brindley Sherratt as Swallow, Michael Colvin as Bob Boles, Jean Rigby as Mrs Sedley and Mark Stone as Ned Keene, with Pamela Helen Stephen as a fag-smoking Auntie and Jonathan Veira's Hobson.

Alan Opie's Balstrode, wonderfully seasoned and laconic, and Pamela Armstrong as a frumpy but touching Ellen Orford were portrayals that any production in the world would happily accommodate, but above all, Stuart Skelton's performance in the title role seems to me to be the best around today.

Skelton was superb when he sang Grimes in David Alden's exceptional ENO production four years ago, but now, with his experience of singing roles such as Tristan and Otello, there's an extra dimension, and the vocal heft is complimented by a touching delicacy when needed; his angry despair in his second-act confrontation with Ellen was heartbreaking, Every facet now is exceptional.