The SCO's concerts at the New Year are often an opportunity to introduce our audiences to a new face on the podium, but not this Season: it turns out our Principal Guest Conductor is a devotee of this repertoire, so it's wonderful to celebrate the beginning of a new year in his company. It was also a perfect excuse for a quick interview ...

It’s a lovely treat to have our Principal Guest Conductor at the helm for our Viennese New Year concerts. How did it come about?

It’s my pleasure! When [Chief Executive] Gavin Reid and [Concerts Director] Judith Colman sounded me about this, I think they were rather stunned at how enthusiastically I jumped at the chance. They didn’t know that I’ve always loved these Viennese waltzes and polkas, having grown up playing New Year concerts in the Bedfordshire Youth Orchestra (together with Su-a Lee!). The music is wonderful, of very high quality - and far harder to play than it sounds, rather like Mozart - so I relish the chance to do it with the SCO.

How did you set about selecting the programme? There’s a lot to choose from by the Strauss family alone.

The hard part is what not to do. You could fill many evenings with Johann Strauss the Younger alone but I thought it good to let some other Viennese composers get a look in. Having Rachel Redmond along for the ride opens up some lovely songs, from that famous tunesmith Schubert to two late Romantics, Lehár and Sieczynski who both lived far into the twentieth century. We are cheating a little by including a Strauss who was not part of the waltz family, Richard, for the simple reason that his ‘Morgen’ is utterly sublime. And I couldn’t resist including Josef Strauss’ Scottish Dance. (Please tell me if you spot anything Scottish about it.)

Are there any gems that you wish there might have been room for?

Yes, dozens! I have a friend in the Swedish Chamber Orchestra who is a Strauss devotee and authority. He knows every piece and showed me many little-known gems - slow ‘French polkas’, curious quadrilles and, of course, a plethora of waltzes. The Strausses only had to wave their pens and perfect melodies poured out. We’ll have to do this again another year!

You’ll of course be spending Hogmanay in Scotland. How will you be celebrating? (Hopefully it won’t be too curtailed by having a concert to conduct next day!)

I confess that the chance to be in Edinburgh for (on?) Hogmanay is a big bonus. I will certainly take advice on where to be at midnight and how to survive the night. My job the next day is to conceal from the audience and the orchestra quite how I’m feeling ...

You’re back with the SCO in March, for The Language of Eden. Can you give us a quick tease of this programme?

Some of my most precious musical memories involve the SCO Chorus and two Williamses, Ralph Vaughan and Roddy. So a programme with the Chorus singing VW's Serenade to Music (setting Shakespeare’s “How sweet the moonlight”), followed by Butterworth's Shropshire Lad songs orchestrated and sung by Roddy Williams, is already looking like one to tell the grandchildren. Add to that a new piece for all these musicians by Jay Capperauld, one of the most fascinating, exhilarating composers writing today, and I believe we have something very special to look forward to. I can't tell you much about Jay’s new piece but the title is intriguing and I am confident that we will all be saying ‘I was there’.

Andrew Manze conducts our Viennese New Year concerts on 1, 3, 4 and 5 January (in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Perth and Ayr respectively), followed by The Language of Eden on 26 and 27 March (in Edinburgh and Glasgow).