In these years Sargent tackled a wide repertoire, recording much of it, but he was particularly noted for performances of choral pieces, most notably Handel's "Messiah", performed with large choruses and orchestras. He joked that his career was based on "the two M's – "Messiah" and "Mikado"". He promoted British music, as he would throughout his career, and conducted the premieres of "At the Boar's Head" (1925) by Holst; "Hugh the Drover" (1924); "Sir John in Love" (1929) by Vaughan Williams; and Walton's cantata "Belshazzar's Feast" (at the Leeds Triennial Festival of 1931). The chorus for the last of these found Walton's music difficult, but Sargent engaged them with it, telling them they were helping to make musical history, and reminding them that Berlioz's Requiem and Elgar's "The Dream of Gerontius" had been considered impossible at first. He drew from them and the LSO what the "The Times" described as "a performance of unflagging energy and amazing volume of tone under Dr. Malcolm Sargent",