Having opened the new season with an all-French programme last week, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HKPO) launches this Friday into A Symphonic Century, an Austro-German package highlighting some of the orchestral milestones of the 19th century. Throughout the rest of this month, works by Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Bruckner and Mahler will illustrate how the symphony orchestra expanded in size and the expressive potential to accommodate composers' new visions. This special series is split into three concert programmes titled Titan, De Waart's Bruckner and The Valkyrie. If there's one work that doesn't quite fit the template, however, it's Berg's Seven Early Songs, written for voice and piano between 1905 and 1908 and orchestrated 20 years later. The piece is one of the three works in this week's Titan concerts. Edo de Waart, artistic director and chief conductor of the HKPO, admits to advocating its inclusion. 'What's significant from my point of view,' he says, 'is that the soloistic parts are vocal and this is very much an expression of where my greatest love lies - the voice. 'We'd been talking to [soprano] Dagmar Schellenberger about the songs before and she said she would love to sing them. It fits beautifully because Berg comes right out of an extension of Mahler.' If de Waart considers the voice an extension of instrumental sound, Wagner viewed his opera-house orchestra as a voice in the pit, contributing significantly to the stage action. When asked to pick his favourite item from A Symphonic Century, de Waart doesn't hesitate: 'Valkyrie', one of Wagner's most popular works. Budget and casting restraints prevented the orchestra from presenting an opera-in-concert this year. 'So we ended up with the First Act of Wagner's Valkyrie which is a good standby itself - 55 to 60 minutes of great music with only three singers,' says de Waart, adding pragmatically that 'we don't yet have a chorus which is at the level of the orchestra.' Now starting his fifth season with the HKPO, de Waart has chosen to repeat Mahler's Symphony No1, the work that marked his first appearance as chief conductor in 2004. A rerun of the piece, which is another work featured in the Titan concert, invites the question as to whether there'll be a discernible improvement in the performance. 'I'm very curious [to find out] because we have done quite a lot of Mahler since then and, as you know, it is quite a defined language in a way,' de Waart says. 'It's a style of playing that you will get your brain around only after years of doing it.' Instilling individual styles for different genres has been a focus of de Waart's work with the orchestra. 'It all has to be built up and slowly brought to fruition. I would be really sad if it wasn't a bit better than when we did it four years ago.' Anton Bruckner's symphonies haven't been aired as often. The September 21 performance of his Symphony No7 is the first time de Waart will be conducting Bruckner with the HKPO. In fact, the orchestra has played his music only four times in the past 14 years. What should newcomers to his work expect? 'I always say Mahler wrote for mankind and Bruckner wrote for God,' says de Waart. 'With Mahler's music it's a highly personal, psychological map with all the little roads in the journey.' In contrast, listeners have to connect to Bruckner's music on a different level, with emotions channelled more classically into climaxes that are never hysterical or desperate. What qualities does this require from a conductor? 'Bruckner's slow movements are to die for,' says de Waart. 'But it requires a certain wisdom, a certain life experience to just sit back and let it happen.' The Dutch conductor sees his own country's contribution to the development of symphonic music not as composers, but as interpreters, not least via the renowned Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. 'Pieces like [Richard Strauss'] Ein Heldenleben were written for the Concertgebouw and it was the first orchestra in the world - in the 1920s - to hold a complete Mahler Festival with all the symphonies played in a three-week span. Amsterdam has always been an important place and it has probably always been more important for recreating than creating.' One wonders which pieces in A Symphonic Century still offer de Waart depths to be plumbed as an interpreter. 'All of them,' he says. 'There are always pieces that suddenly fall into place. I still see so much in performance. I look down at the score and, suddenly, it's like a light appearing. I think my job would be untenable if that didn't happen any more. 'That's the beauty of my profession. You always know there are more things to grasp and understand about the music. I still hope for the ultimate light. It'll probably shine on my deathbed.' Titan, Fri-Sat, HK$180-HK$480; De Waart's Bruckner, Sept 21, HK$150-HK$380; The Valkyrie, Sept 26-27, HK$180-HK$680. All concerts will be held at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall at 8pm. Inquiries: 2721 2030