Birmingham's contribution to the opening night of the London 2012 cultural Olympiad was a UK premiere, given by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and its choruses under Edward Gardner. First performed in Berlin last autumn under Simon Rattle, Weltethos, Jonathan Harvey's 80-minute "vision in music", is a setting of words by the Swiss Roman Catholic theologian Hans Küng; he apparently devised the text and offered it to the Berlin Philharmonic, asking the orchestra to find a composer to set it.

If Küng's descriptions of six of the world's leading religions - Confucianism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and Christianity - and the values they have in common was the starting point for what is Harvey's most ambitious choral work to date, it is also its fatal shortcoming. Sung entirely in German at the premiere but partly translated into fustian English for this performance, Küng's mixture of patronisingly simplistic description, extracts from each faith's sacred scriptures, and hopes for the future of humanity may be well intended, but comes across as tendentious and mawkish.

In the way he tackles each of the six sections, and varies their musical treatment, Harvey tries hard to lighten the leaden effect of the words, but it's a thankless task.

There are some striking moments, especially when the words become indistinguishable and Harvey allows his mastery as a composer of electronic sounds to carry over into his manipulation of orchestra and choral textures, coloured by a huge range of percussion and the unmistakable tang of a cimbalom. The performances were exemplary, with superb choral singing in writing that ranges from whispered Sprechgesang, to fiercely dissonant clusters and close-packed tonal triads. It was a shame such a magnificent effort had to be squandered on so problematic a piece.

• Available via the BBC Radio 3 website until Thursday.