Under his tenure, the company began to program rare operas such as Maxwell Davies' Resurrection and Weinberger's Schwanda the Bagpiper.
Erwartung (1924) and La voix humaine (1959) closely follow the traditional definition, while in Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969) by Peter Maxwell Davies, the instrumentalists are brought to the stage to participate in the action.
As well as producing fiction, poetry, and numerous book reviews for the Times Literary Supplement, he also wrote libretti for theatrical works by Peter Maxwell Davies.
The collection continues to expand in the present day, with Scottish painters such as John Bellany (Peter Maxwell Davies, self-portrait and Billy Connelly) and John Byrne, whose works include images of himself, Tilda Swinton, Billy Connelly and Robbie Coltrane.
The Orkney composer Peter Maxwell Davies has immortalised Yesnaby through "Yesnaby Ground", an Interlude for solo piano.
Peter Pan | Peter Gabriel | Peter Jackson | Peter | Saint Peter | Peter Paul Rubens | Peter Sellers | Peter the Great | Blue Peter | Peter Frampton | Peter Greenaway | Peter Brook | Peter Lorre | Robert Maxwell | Peter Ustinov | St. Peter's Basilica | Peter Kropotkin | St. Peter | Ray Davies | Peter Fonda | Peter Kay | Peter David | Peter Mandelson | Peter O'Toole | Peter Allen | Lord Peter Wimsey | Robertson Davies | Peter Sellars | Peter Schreier | Peter, Paul and Mary |
Bartenev has created costumes for theater plays: The Blue Bird by Maurice Maeterlinck in New York, Elizaveta Bam by Daniil Kharms in Moscow, Cinderella by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies in Hamburg.
Since the ensemble's beginning, Manning has championed Pierrot Lunaire and a number of twentieth century works influenced by it, ranging from Walton's Facade to Miss Donnithorne's Maggot by Peter Maxwell Davies.
The Manchester School is principally identified with the composers Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies and Alexander Goehr, and together with the pianist John Ogdon and the conductor and trumpeter Elgar Howarth they formed the group New Music Manchester.
Commissions and First Performances were established in the 1950s and 1960s and included works by Stravinsky (Canticum Sacrum, guest conducted by Robert Craft, in 1956), Bruno Maderna, Luigi Dallapiccola, Peter Maxwell Davies, John Tavener, Anthony Milner, Stanley Glasser (sung in Zulu), Christopher Brown, Geoffrey Burgon and his own pupil Nicholas Maw.
Stromness is referenced in the title of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies's popular piano piece Farewell to Stromness, a piano interlude from The Yellow Cake Revue, which was written to protest at plans to open a uranium mine in the area.
In March 2009, Voce performed the London premiere of Peter Maxwell Davies’ setting of the poem ‘The Five Acts of Harry Patch’, by poet laureate Andrew Motion, accompanied by the London Mozart Players.