Symphony Orchestra from 1963 to 1967, the BBC Choral Society sang Mahler, a great deal of Stravinsky, some Britten, and much Beethoven. When Colin Davis took over in 1967, a new group of composers came to the fore: Berlioz, Liszt (the Dante Symphony as well as the Faust Symphony), and Michael Tippett. This last connection brought the BBC Choral Society its opportunity to make its first recording for a commercial company in recent years (though Mendelssohn's Elijah had been recorded as long ago as 1930): Tippett's oratorio A Child of Our Time was recorded under Davis's direction for Philips Classics Records. There followed a succession of major contemporary works: Voices of Night by Franz Reizenstein in 1969; La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ by Messiaen at the first night of the Proms in 1970; and the Requiem by Gyorgy Ligeti in 1971. 1970s In 1971, Colin Davis departed to take up the post of Music Director at Covent Garden, and was succeeded by the composer and conductor Pierre Boulez. There was also a change of chorus master: in 1972 Peter Gellhorn was succeeded by John Poole, who directed several of the concerts in this period, including Dvořák's Te Deum and Bruckner's F minor Mass. The Boulez repertoire, as with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, was immediately distinctive: Schoenberg's Gurrelieder was given several performances, and became a commercial recording for CBS Records. Stravinsky, Ravel, Debussy and Mahler were prominently featured, while of the romantics Berlioz, Schumann (the Scenes from Goethe's Faust) and Brahms (the Requiem) all appeared more than once. During this period the Society sang under many guest conductors: the young Andrew Davis made his unexpected London debut with them in Janáček's Glagolitic Mass; Lorin Maazel returned to conduct some highly successful concerts; John Pritchard conducted several events including Rachmaninov's The Bells; and an increasingly large number of important occasions were undertaken by the Chorus Master, John Poole. John Poole was entrusted with the world premiere of David Bedford's Twelve Hours of Sunset in 1975, and at the Alexandra Palace conducted two symphonies by Havergal Brian with the BBC Choral Society (who had already taken part in the giant Gothic Symphony by the same composer in a concert at the Albert Hall). Another first performance, that of Iain Hamilton's Epitaph for this world and time, performed before the traditional Beethoven's Ninth on the penultimate night of the Proms in 1975, proved