ITwas to be one of the most memorable nights in the career of James Dillon: a long-awaited return to his hometown to hear his compositions performed by Scotland's national orchestra.

He cannot forget the evening, but for all the wrong reasons.

Dillon, a leading composer, left the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall dismayed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra's "dismissive" performance of his Via Sacra.

The performance was slated by music critics and the BBC, which was recording the concert on March 5 for Radio 3, evidently agreed, and decided not to broadcast it last week.

The official reason given for the schedule change on Monday was "technical difficulties".

However, The Herald understands that BBC producers believed the RSNO's performance was "poor" and not of broadcast quality.

Mr Dillon is feted across the classical music world. His work, however, is not easy listening - it has been called "challenging", "dissonant", "brutal", and "difficult to grasp".

Last night he spoke of his sadness at the RSNO performance, which he believes was well below par. Members of the audience saw one leading player yawn pointedly before the piece began, and other musicians stare at the score as if it was impossible to understand.

Mr Dillon said: "I don't know quite how to describe it, it was certainly a sobering experience.

The whole feeling was that they weren't interested.

"One really has mixed feelings about this - on the one hand you have a professional orchestra who want to make good music, but there's also a group dynamic and, if that fails, the group dynamic will alter the whole performance.

"I thought there was a lack of respect. There seemed to be no conception of the fact that I spent a year of my life working on creating something like that.

"You do develop a very thick skin, but I thought I had seen the back of that kind of attitude to the work."

Mr Dillon laid the blame for the performance on the management of the orchestra, and the conductor for the night, Alexander Lazarev, for the apparent lack of interest in the work, rather than the musicians.

Conrad Wilson, The Herald's music critic, said in his review that the RSNO did not "rise to the occasion" and that Lazarev behaved as if he wished to get it over as quickly as possible.

Kenneth Walton, of the Scotsman, said the piece was treated with "disdain" and added: "We expect more from our national orchestra."

Other audience members have told The Herald they were shocked by the performance, which appeared disinterested and even careless. One said: "It seemed to me there was an obvious lack of interest from the orchestra, it was plain to see they were not taking it seriously. I was appalled."

Mr Dillon said he left the concert hall because he was so mortified, missing the second half of the concert and the performance of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex.

He added: "The responsibility has to come from the conductor, the management, and the leader because the atmosphere they create is key, and if their attitude is dismissive, then it will affect the performance."

Mr Dillon had travelled to Glasgow from his home in London for the performance, forwhich he gave a pre-concert speech. He declined the offer of an appearance at a festival in Finland for the show, but now regrets it.

"I was excited about the performance beforehand because it was in Glasgow and I was going home.

"Afterwards, I wasn't staying because I just had to get out. I have met musicians in the orchestra who are into the music and I felt sorry for them.

"I have worked with Lazarev before and let's just say there was minimal conversation and there was a perfunctory way he dealt with me. If he wasn't interested in doing it, why didn't he get one of his colleagues to do it?"

Julien de Ste. Croix, acting chief executive of the RSNO, said the orchestra had worked very hard on the piece in rehearsal and Mr Lazarev had been fully committed to the work.

He said as professional musicians they did not let their personal feelings for a work affect their performance.

He added: "I cannot tell you the opinions of 90-odd players, but it was a very complex piece and I believe they did a professional job.

"I have a [prior] recording of the piece and personally I thought our performance was even better than that.

"However, given that it was especially played for (Radio 3's) Encore, it is a shame it was not broadcast. I thought our performance was very good."

JAMES DILLON Born in Glasgow in October 1950, now based in London.

A leading contemporary/avant garde composer, he has worked with members of the Grateful Dead, and has been a guest professor at universities across the world. He was officially Distinguished International Visitor at New York University in 2001/2.

Has been commissioned by the BBC Proms three times, including his violin concerto, which was premiered to acclaim in 2000 by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

His flute concerto, Blitzchlag, was premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in 1996.

Has won two prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, in 1997 and 2003.

Has recently premiered his fourth string quartet, and future projects include a piano concerto and a large-scale, multi-movement work called Anthropologies.