ONE topic generated wide discussion at Sir Alex Gibson's concert with

the RSO on Saturday night: where on earth was the audience at one of the

most poorly attended RSO concerts in a long while?

Some blamed the weather; others the recession. Several suggested the

presence of a modern work on the programme. More controversially, there

is another possibility. That the programme itself might have been a

factor. Martin Dalby's attractively romantic work, The Mary Bean,

notwithstanding, the programme was solid traditional fare: Bruch's

Scottish Fantasy, warmly if rather demurely played by Korean violinist

Dong-Suk Kang, and Elgar's First Symphony, given the broad, long-range

Gibson treatment.

I can't prove this, but I have an instinct that such a safe programme,

which might have worked in parochial London, is of little interest to

Glaswegian palates -- which are more adventurous and sophisticated than

some folks think. A diet of Bruch and Elgar is stodgy, and for

Glaswegians -- who do like a bit of danger -- to turn out en masse,

there would have to be something special about its presentation.

That said, I would have expected more folk because of Sir Alex, who

does have his own following. It's a big discussion this one, but for

sure, with the box-office implications alone, the RSO cannot afford more

than a handful of similarly-attended events. Let me know your views; it

could be worth a column.