Contrary to the optimism I expressed in Saturday's Herald Arts, but as the reappearance of advertising for Raymond Gubbay's Christmas Festival in last week's Herald suggested, the concert hall was very far from full for what was one of the most sellable concerts in this season's series.

Packing the platform were the singers of the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union, limbering up for their Usher Hall Messiah, the West Lothian chapter of the National Youth Choir of Scotland, showing the brand's characteristically nimble way around the carol repertoire, ancient and modern, and producing two fine soloists from within its ranks, tenor Thomas Walker (depping for the indisposed Iain Paton) and trumpet soloist Peter Franks of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

In the middle sat the other SCO, the "Scottish Concert Orchestra", led by Scottish Opera's Tony Moffat and, although somewhat different in both instrumentation and personnel from the band listed in the programme, still featuring many of the best freelancers working in Scotland and a very crisp chamber ensemble itself.

Marshalling all of this was the Edinburgh choir's chorusmaster, and now a recruit to the stable of Gubbay concert MDs, Michael Bawtree.

Fine musician that he is, Bawtree was initially more precise than personable in his presentation, and it was not until the second half, when he became more expansive about the music, that his banter was as appropriate as his beat.

This was, however, a concert that ticked a lot of boxes with its eclectic programme. Singalong carols were interspersed with showpieces for the soloists, the strings, the young people and the senior choir. There was no weak link, but those empty seats tell their own story.

HHH