In the New Year, the London Symphony Orchestra is hosting a short John Adams season, centred on two programmes of his music that the composer is conducting himself. Marin Alsop's guest appearance with the orchestra provided a preview, for she devoted the first part of her programme to one of Adams' less frequently heard scores.

Fearful Symmetries was composed in 1988, just after the premiere of Adams' first opera, Nixon in China. It's a relatively featureless half-hour piece, almost aggressively minimalist in its driving rhythms and four-square phrases, and one that has proved popular with choreographers. In an orchestral concert, though, it is less satisfying, despite the skilful scoring. The passing recollections of the Nixon sound world seem only to underline its thin dramatic content, while the glances back to Adams's Harmonielehre draw attention to the obviousness of the musical architecture.

Alsop guided the LSO unswervingly along the pulsing trajectory of Fearful Symmetries, and then took the orchestra through an equally vivid account of Mahler's Fifth Symphony. The orchestral playing was superb and Alsop's control of every detail was impressive, but the result was less than the sum of the parts. Sections did not dovetail as they should; the Adagietto seemed too concerned with its own expressiveness; and the chorale was more impressive in the second movement than the finale.

· To be broadcast on Classic FM on December 10.