There was a lot of love for the Edinburgh International Festival concert performance of West Side Story, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. With the finger-clicking Scottish Chamber Orchestra taking up most of the stage in the Usher Hall, director Stephen Whitton made the most of the small spaces in front of the orchestra, between the orchestra and the audience in the Organ Gallery, and the aisles up the side of the Gallery, as the Jets and the Sharks street-fought and rumbled through to the tragic end. The performance skipped much of Arthur Laurents’ dialogue, to concentrate on Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics and Leonard Bernstein’s music, played through without an interval.

From the moment the Jets erupted on-stage and Dan D’Souza led them in the shout of bravado that is the Jet Song: When You’re a Jet, the pace never really let up. Alek Shrader had an early opportunity to impress as Tony, singing Something’s Coming with barely contained excitement.  

The girls – in colourful dresses with net underskirts – joined the be-jeaned and T-shirted boys for The Dance at the Gym; the orchestra really let rip with the Latin rhythms. Shrader’s rendition of Maria was ecstatic, a boy swept off his feet in love. Then he joined Maria (Sophia Burgos) on her balcony for Tonight. Burgos and Shrader were well balanced for their duet, Burgos having a delicious purity in her high notes. In the line ‘Tonight, tonight, the sky is full of light’, the playing of the SCO was sparkling.

D’Souza was tightly controlled as he urged the rest of the Jets to play it Cool.  The boys left the stage for the fugue, leading into that hottest of jazz, before boys and girls ran on for the final chorus.

The Quintet, with its three strands of menace, expectation, and desire, was driving, not just because of its car-like sounds from the orchestra. The Rumble which followed, culminated in the death of Riff – who folded, impressively, over Bernardo’s knife – and Bernardo (Nuno Silva), by Riff’s knife snatched up by Tony. In silence, the bodies were borne off.

The orchestral playing in I Feel Pretty reminded us that the music is not all Latin rhythms and percussion, bringing out some gorgeous colours and textures. If, however, anything did not quite come off, it was the singing in the Ballet Sequence: Somewhere, which lacked the visceral yearning for something better.

As well as conducting, Sir John had a cameo as Officer Krupke. Stay cool, Daddy-o. David Lerner was a lively and expressive Baby John, leading the acerbic commentary of Gee, Officer Krupke.  At last, Andrea Baker got Anita’s big number – A Boy Like That – which she sang with all the grief and venom it requires. Maria’s riposte – I Have a Love – was delicately sung by Burgos, again with those pure high notes.

The multiracial chorus of boys and girls reminded us that, despite Bernardo’s taunt of ‘native boy’, the Jets were as much immigrants as the Puerto Rican Sharks. Whatever, they sang and danced with energy and intensity.