)As well as the regular standard concert works including Sir Elgar's "The Dream of Gerontius" (in which she frequently sang under the baton of the composer) and Handel's "Messiah", Desmond sang a wide repertoire, taking part in the first broadcast performance of Stravinsky's "Oedipus rex" in 1928 and a rare performance of Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde", with Peter Pears, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Adrian Boult in 1942, and she was the first to introduce the songs of Yrjö Kilpinen to British audiences.Desmond made few commercial recordings