With John Adams and Philip Glass celebrating, respectively, their 60th and 70th birthdays this year, the temptation to mark both anniversaries with a single event will doubtless prove irresistible to orchestras on both sides of the Atlantic. Given that both are among the foremost of living American composers and are stylistically descended from the same minimalist roots, there is a good deal of logic to this scheme, but there are pitfalls too, as were amply illustrated by this Glass-Adams programme from the SCO.

The problem, quite simply, is that in presenting a straightforward comparison between the two composers, the quirky complexity of Adams' brand of minimalism is bound to have the edge over the incessantly repetitive arpeggios of Glass every time, emphasising the motoric predictability and dearth in variety of the latter. A case in point was Glass's 1992 Concerto Grosso, receiving a belated UK premiere from the SCO and dapper young Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu. A baroque-inspired three-movement work built out of Glass's trademark arpeggio figures, it paled in comparison to Adams' vivacious, humorous Chamber Symphony with which it was juxtaposed. And if the Glass seemed something of a routine stroll for the players, a paired-down SCO ensemble responded to the Adams with more enthusiasm, surmounting its formidable challenges with skill and poise.

Equally telling, while the second half of the programme presented Adams in a completely different vein, with his atmospheric orchestration of Liszt's enigmatic piano piece Black Gondola, it presented Glass as more of the same, with his Concerto for saxophone quartet and orchestra. Played by the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet, at whose behest it was written, it came across as a particularly unimaginative work, even by the standards of Glass, and the solo ensemble did little but add sonority in the orchestral texture.