Henze - A view from inside the BBC Symphony Orchestra

As the first BBC Symphony Orchestra mole to peep out blinking from the Maida Vale bunker it falls to me to welcome you to our first blog. Hopefully I won't be the only one from within ranks of the orchestra to share a little of the goings on with you.

First things first, I'm the mop-haired, (hyphen-loving) sub-principal violist Phil Hall. This is my 19th year with the orchestra (I know, I know, with good behaviour I could have been out by now) and I usually spend my days on the front desk sitting with the elegantly coiffured co-principal Caroline Harrison or the rather anarchically tressed Norbert Blume, our esteemed Principal. I have been charged to provide some insights into our latest project: Total Immersion - the music of Hans Werner Henze.

For the last 20 or so years the BBCSO devoted an entire weekend in the middle of January to a featured composer. Recent seasons focused on Elliot Carter, Messiaen, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Weill. From Friday through to Sunday night their oeuvres were investigated via film, discussion, chamber, orchestral and semi-staged operatic performances. Usually it was quite an undertaking for the orchestra; I particularly remember the John Adams weekend having more notes than the Bank of England and my brain being fried by no fewer than six pieces of Alban Berg in one concert. By and large, 'though, the total immersion technique proved popular with audiences and critics alike and very often we too in the orchestra discovered new gems. Sometimes we even emerged still liking the composer!

The thought of an entire concert of contemporary German music may have some punters running for the Ausgang, but I've always had a soft spot for Henze since playing his lush ultra Romantic tone poem 'Heliogabalus Imperator' in the BBC Philharmonic years ago. 'It's like Richard Strauss on acid,' a fiddle-player remarked. He writes with such a vivid orchestral palette that there is always something to enjoy playing. This weekend we'll be tackling his 4th Symphony, Fraternité and the first UK performance of Elogium Musicum, Henze's tribute to his late partner.

We start rehearsals today. I'll keep you posted.

• Starting on Friday, Phil's blog posts will be complemented by posts from Radio 3 listener-blogger Rosalind Porter, who'll be in the audience for the whole event.
• Full details of Hans Werner - Total Immersion are available by clicking this link
• You can hear the Henze works Phil mentions above in Performance on 3 on BBC Radio, Monday 18 January at 7pm
• The picture above is from the BBC Archive - it shows Chester Kallman, W. H. Auden and Hans Werner Henze. On July 13th, 1961 at 9.30 p.m. in the BBC Third Programme, Chester Kallman, W. H. Auden and Hans Werner Henze discussed their opera 'Elegy for Young Lovers', which was broadcast from Glyndebourne on Saturday, July 15th, 1961