Was it the credit crunch starting to bite? Or was it, more predictably, the presence of Boulez and Messiaen on the programme that was the deciding factor in drawing only a meagre audience to this enterprising concert.

The current line-up of conductors at the LSO has been cleverly engineered to cover a wide range of programming. While Valery Gergiev explores the Russian repertoire and Colin Davis looks after the core German classics, it is left to principal guest conductor Daniel Harding to venture into more modern territory and neglected byways.