In recent years, our repertoire has included Bartok’s Miraculous
Mandarin, Ravel's Daphnis
& Chloé (complete), Rachmaninov’s Symphonies
no. 2 & 3, Stravinsky’s The Rite of
Spring, Tippett's Ritual
Dances, Peter Maxwell Davis' "Five Klee
Pictures", Shostakovich’s Symphonies no. 8,
10 and 11, the Elgar/Payne Symphony
no. 3,
Mahler's
Sixth and Ninth Symphonies and
Nielsen's 5th Symphony. In May 1998 we celebrated our Silver
Anniversary with Bartok’s Duke
Bluebeard’s Castle, with soloists Sue Bickley
and Peter Sidhom, for which we also commissioned
Howard Jones’ Thamesside
Variations. In November 2002 we celebrated our
Thirtieth Anniversary with Leonard Bernstein’s SongFest,
a vocal extravaganza for six soloists and large
orchestra.
We value our continuing association with major choral
societies and appeared with the Epsom Choral Society
for The Dream of Gerontius and Elijah.
The WPO also has a long-standing relationship
with the National Westminster Choir, which has
embraced the Poulenc Gloria,
Puccini’s Missa di Gloria, selections from Porgy & Bess and the St.
Matthew Passion. In 2007 we appeared with Eltham
Choral Society in their concert performance of
Verdi's Nabucco. With the Joint Hertfordshire
Choirs, we have appeared four times at the Royal Albert
Hall in aid of the British Council for the
Prevention of Blindness, performing Britten’s War
Requiem in 1994, Mahler’s Symphony
no. 8 (Symphony
of a Thousand) in 1999, Verdi's Requiem in 2003, and most recently Berlioz' spectacular Grande
Messe des Morts in November
2007.
On the
Silva Screen label we have released four CDs of
film music: Franz Waxman’s ‘The
Bride of Frankenstein’ (which was played in
BBC Radio 3's "Composer of the Week" on Franz Waxman in
May 2008), a selection by Max
Steiner including his score for
Gone
With The Wind, ‘Horror’
and ‘The Devil Rides Out’. Silva Screen's
compilation
The
Great British Film Music Album includes the
WPO’s recordings. In 2002 we recorded
Scott Benzie’s music for the film
Room 36,
directed by Jim Groom.
