MUSIC / Nielsen gets high ratings: Stephen Johnson on Nielsen at the Barbican and Norgard at the South Bank

HOW operatic is Nielsen's Saul and David? The music may be dramatic enough in itself, but isn't that the problem - that it is dramatic 'in itself'? Few operas are carried along so consistently by such a tide of musical invention, but there are times when one wonders what staging could possibly add to it. The best one could hope for might be a kind of sensitive visual gloss - and how many producers are going to be turned on by an idea like that?

But let's not leap to conclusions. Those of us who can only judge from records, broadcasts or concert performances, such as that put on by the BBC for the Barbican's 'Tender Is the North' festival, may well be in for a surprise or two when we finally get to see a sympathetic staging.

For, as Monday's BBC version made abundantly plain, Nielsen's score more than deserves the effort. There's enough material here for a couple of symphonies, several cantatas and a clutch of solo songs, not to mention the beginnings of a promising string quintet. But while Saul and David definitely isn't a conventional number opera, it has more than enough great vocal moments: Jonathan and Mikhail's hymn to the night in Act 3 and Saul's final, ringing challenge to God, 'Wash yourself clear of my sin, if you can]', are only a sample.

Quite simply, this concert performance was a triumph. Under Andrew Davis, the BBC Symphony Orchestra showed the same sonorous, authoritative form that emerged in their magnificent Elgar Two and Bruckner Eight at the Proms this year. The orchestral storm that introduces the Witch of Endor scene in Act 4 was a tour de force, but then how marvellous to be able to contrast that with the warm, intimate playing of the solo violas and cello that follows. This was crowned by fine singing. Both Ulrik Cold as Saul and Kurt Westi as David sounded fleetingly unsteady at the very beginning, but stirring feats followed - Cold excellent as the angry king, and Westi's David lyrical, ardent, secure and thrilling in the heights. One could go on distributing laurels, but space permits only special mention for the heroic BBC Symphony Chorus, who, amongst other achievements, showed the Act 3 fugue for the sublime thing it is. What a pity there wasn't a record company to hand.

Evelyn Glennie's performance of Per Norgard's percussion concerto, For a Change, with Paul Daniel and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the South Bank the previous evening was spectacular - literally, since the sight of Glennie on full athletic form almost constitutes a new type of music theatre. But as sound it was remarkable enough. The question was, how much was Glennie, and how much was Norgard? The score of For a Change offers a fair quantity of notated material for its third and final cadenza, but Glennie took this merely as a starting-point for her own wild and protracted adventures. Norgard's brief orchestral coda could only sound comically diminutive after that.

As to the rest of For a Change I'm not sure that it's a good idea for a composer to admit within earshot of a critic that his concerto is essentially a solo piece with orchestra added later. Imaginative though Norgard's orchestral writing often is, it was difficult not to find evidence of this admission in passage after passage - especially in the finale. There are beautiful things, though, and the Royal Philharmonic made sure that we appreciated them. And special commendation to the RPO's principal trombonist for singing 'Nine' and 'Number nine' into his instrument so beguilingly - and for keeping a straight face.

'Tender Is the North' continues to Sunday at the Barbican Centre, London (Box-office: 071-638 8891)