Thomas Beecham

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Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, CH (29 April, 1879– 8 March 1961) was a British conductor. He founded several British orchestras including the New Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. From the early twentieth century until his death Beecham was a dominant influence on the musical life of Britain.

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Biography

Beecham was born in St. Helens, Lancashire, England. His father, Sir Joseph Beecham, 1st Baronet (1848–1916), was a wealthy patent pill manufacturer and civic leader, who had been awarded a baronetcy for continuing the work of his father Thomas Beecham (1820–1907), the inventor of Beecham's Pills.

His relations with fellow British conductors were seldom cordial. Sir Henry Wood regarded him as an upstart and was envious of his success; the scrupulous Sir Adrian Boult was not in sympathy with him as a man or a musician; Sir Malcolm Sargent worked with him in founding the London Philharmonic, but was the subject of many witty but unkind digs from the older man - for example, he described Herbert von Karajan as "a kind of musical Malcolm Sargent". Sir John Barbirolli regarded Beecham as unreliable. On the other hand, Beecham's relations with foreign conductors were often excellent. He did not get on with Arturo Toscanini, but he liked and encouraged Wilhelm Furtwängler and later Rudolf Kempe, and was admired by Fritz Reiner.


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Repertoire

The earliest composer whose music Beecham regularly performed was Handel. Even by the standards of his day Beecham took an unscholarly approach to Handel's scores, cutting, reordering and re-orchestrating wholesale. In defence of this it may be noted that, first, much of the music revamped by Beecham was not otherwise heard at all in those days and, secondly, except by the out-and-out purist, his arrangements are widely regarded as delicious even now. With Haydn, too, Beecham was far from an authenticist, not that he extensively re-orchestrated (apart from eliminating the harpsichord) but his legato style with 'hairpin' swells was far from today's more sober approach.

For Beecham, Mozart was the high point of music, and the conductor treated the composer's scores with more deference than he gave most others (nevertheless, he touched up the orchestration of even the Jupiter symphony here and there).

Beecham's attitude to Beethoven was ambivalent. He lost no opportunity to make rude remarks about the music, but conducted all the symphonies at one time or another, and recorded Nos 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8. A fine live recording of the Missa Solemnis has recently been published.

Of 19th century composers, Berlioz is probably the one who was closest to Beecham's heart, and in an age when the composer's works were far from over-exposed Beecham presented most of them and recorded many. It is arguable that the only conductor to do more to bring Berlioz before the musical public is another Englishman, Sir Colin Davis.

Beecham was a first-rate Wagner conductor, despite a certain disdain for the composer's excessive length and repetitiousness ("We've been rehearsing for two hours – and we're still playing the same bloody tune!" (Charles Reid, "Thomas Beecham", 1961). He was also a master of Richard Strauss’s music, acknowledged by the composer.

In Italian opera he showed curiously little passion for Verdi, but in the middle of the 20th century was one of the few serious rivals to Toscanini and Victor De Sabata as an interpreter of Puccini. His recording of La Boheme, with Jussi Bjorling and Victoria de Los Angeles is justly famous to this day.

The only other major 20th century composer to engage his sympathies was Sibelius, who recognised him as a fine conductor of his music (though it is perhaps necessary to bear in mind that Sibelius tended to be lavish with praise of anybody who conducted his music)

In the music of his native land Beecham was generally antipathetic to, or at best lukewarm about, the most eminent and acclaimed composers, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Walton and Britten. His championship of Delius virtually single-handedly rescued the composer from obscurity, and all subsequent performances of Delius works even in the 21st century are automatically compared to Beecham’s benchmark recordings, and are usually judged wanting. Minor British composers, like many minor European ones (see discography, below) appealed to him, and received performances of their works that possibly made them seem better than they were.

By the late 1950s until the end of his life, he made a significant impact on British musical life in London, conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in a series of major concerts and making some important recordings. Among them is his Tchaikovsky 4th Symphony and Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade".

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"Lollipops"

Beecham was a great champion of various composers, including Delius, Bizet, Berlioz, Dame Ethel Smyth and Sibelius. He also often succeeded in presenting slight pieces, such as encores, in their best light, and this gave rise to the terminology "Beecham's lollipops". On the other hand, Beecham tended to dismiss some of the works usually considered masterpieces of classical music. For example, he once said that he would happily give up all of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos for Massenet's Manon. [1]

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Quotations

Beecham was known as a great raconteur and wit. There are many anecdotes involving him, and he is often quoted:

  • It is said that in one rehearsal he was unsatisfied with the performance of a female cello soloist, and so said to her "Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands, and all you can do is scratch it!".
  • He helped Walter Legge underwrite the creation of the Philharmonia Orchestra, and conducted its premiere concert on 25 October, 1945. Later, Legge raised the matter of Beecham's fee, to which he replied: "The privilege of directing this magnificent consort of artists is such that my pleasure would be diminished if I accepted a fee. I would, however, gladly accept a decent cigar"
  • "Here are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn’t give a damn what goes on in between."
  • when asked why only male composers appeared in his repertoire, he said "There are no women composers, never have been, and possibly never will be" (however he later revised this view, and became a champion of Ethel Smyth's music)
  • he described the sound of the harpsichord variously as
    • "like two skeletons copulating on a corrugated tin roof"
    • "playing a birdcage with a toasting fork"
  • of Johann Sebastian Bach – "Too much counterpoint; what is worse, Protestant counterpoint"
  • of Beethoven – "Beethoven’s last quartets were written by a deaf man and should only be listened to by a deaf man"
  • "Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory". [Beecham admitted to Neville Cardus that he had made this up on the spur of the moment to satisfy an importunate journalist; he acknowledged that it was an oversimplification. (Neville Cardus: 'Sir Thomas Beecham, A Memoir', 1961)]
  • “Try everything once except folk dancing and incest”. [This is also attributed to Sir Arnold Bax and George S Kaufman.]
  • “Brass bands are all very well in their place – outdoors and several miles away”.
  • “I have just been all round the world and have formed a very poor opinion of it”.
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Honours

Beecham was knighted in 1916 and succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father later that year.

In 1938 the President of France bestowed upon him the decoration of the Legion of Honour (Légion d'honneur).

He was made a Companion of Honour in 1957.

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Death and afterwards

Beecham died in London at the age of 81, of a second cerebral thrombosis.

He is remembered through the orchestras he founded and the many archive recordings that are still available.

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Works

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Published books

  • A Mingled Chime, (an autobiography)
  • John Fletcher (1956), Oxford, Clarendon Press. (The Romanes Lecture for 1956).
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Selected discography

  • Balakirev
  • Beethoven
  • Berlioz
    • Damnation of Faust: Danse des Sylphes/ Menuet des follets – RPO
    • Harold in Italy – Riddle/RPO
    • King Lear Overture – RPO
    • Le Corsaire Overture – RPO
    • Les Francs Juges Overture – RPO
    • Les Troyens Overture – RPO
    • Roman Carnival Overture – RPO
    • Symphonie Fantastique – RPO
    • Trojan March – RPO
    • Waverley Overture – RPO
  • Bizet
  • Boccherini
    • Overture in D – RPO
  • Borodin
    • Polovtsian Dances – Beecham Choral Society/RPO
  • Brahms
    • Academic Festival Overture – RPO
    • Symphony No 2 – RPO
    • Tragic Overture – LPO
  • Chabrier
    • Espana – RPO
    • Gwendoline Overture – French National Radio Orchestra
    • Joyeuse Marche – RPO
  • Debussy
    • Cortège & Air de danse – RPO
    • Prélude à l'après midi – RPO
  • Delibes
    • Le Roi s'amuse – RPO
  • Delius
    • Appalachia – BBC Chorus/LPO
    • Brigg Fair – RPO
    • Dance Rhapsody No 2 – RPO
    • Fennimore & Gerda Intermezzo – RPO
    • Florida Suite: Daybreak & Dance – RPO
    • Irmelin Prelude – RPO
    • On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring – RPO
    • Sleighride – RPO
    • Song Before Sunrise – RPO
    • Summer Evening – RPO
    • Summer Night on the River – RPO
  • Dvořák
    • Legend in G minor – RPO
    • Slavonic Rhapsody No 3 – LPO
    • Symphony No 8 – RPO
  • Fauré
    • Dolly Suite – French National Radio Orchestra
    • Pavane – French National Radio Orchestra
  • Franck
    • Symphony – French National Radio Orchestra
  • Goldmark
    • Rustic Wedding Symphony – RPO
  • Gounod
    • Faust Ballet music – RPO
    • Le sommeil de Juliette – RPO
  • Grétry
    • Zémire et Azore ballet music – RPO
  • Grieg
    • Peer Gynt music – RPO
    • Symphonic dance in A – RPO
  • Handel
    • Amaryllis – RPO
    • Love in Bath – RPO
    • Messiah (complete) – Jon Vickers et al/ RPO
    • Solomon (complete) – John Cameron/ RPO
    • The Faithful Shepherd – RPO
    • The Gods Go A'Begging – RPO
    • The Great Elopement – LPO
  • Haydn
  • Lalo
    • Symphony – RPO
  • Massenet
    • Last sleep of the Virgin – RPO
    • Waltz from Cendrillon – RPO
  • Mendelssohn
    • Fair Melusine Overture – RPO
    • Symphony No 4, Italian – RPO
  • Mozart
    • Clarinet Concerto – Jack Brymer/RPO
    • Die Zauberflöte Overture – RPO
    • Flute & Harp Concerto – Le Roy, Laskine/RPO
    • German Dance K605 – RPO
    • Haffner March K249 – RPO
    • Le Nozze di Figaro Overture – LPO
    • Minuet from Divertimento in D K131 – RPO
    • Requiem – Morison et al/RPO
    • Symphony No 31 – Suisse Romande Orchestra
    • Symphony No 34 – Suisse Romande Orchestra
    • Symphony No 35 – LPO
    • Symphony No 36 – LPO
    • Symphony No 38 – LPO
    • Symphony No 39 – Suisse Romande Orchestra
    • Symphony No 40 – LPO
    • Symphony No 41 – RPO
    • Thamos: Entr'acte – RPO
  • Mussorgsky
    • Khovantschina Dance of the Persian Slaves – RPO
  • Offenbach
    • Les Contes des Hoffman suite – RPO
  • Puccini
  • Rimsky-Korsakov
    • Scheherazade – RPO
  • Rossini
    • La Cambiale di matrimonio Overture – RPO
    • La Gazza Ladra Overture – RPO
    • Semiramide Overture – RPO
  • Saint-Saëns
    • Rouet d'Omphale – RPO
    • Samson & Dalila Dance of the Priestesses/ Bacchanale – RPO
  • Schubert
    • Symphony No 1 – RPO
    • Symphony No 2 – RPO
    • Symphony No 3 – RPO
    • Symphony No 5 – RPO
    • Symphony No 6 – RPO
    • Symphony No 8 – RPO
  • Sibelius
    • Symphony No 2 – BBC Symphony Orchestra
    • Symphony No 4 – LPO
    • Symphony No 6 – RPO
    • Symphony No 7 – RPO
    • Tapiola – LPO
    • Valse Triste – RPO
    • Karelia Suite - RPO
  • Smetana
    • Bartered Bride Overture – RPO
    • Bartered Bride Polka – RPO
  • Strauss
  • Suppé
    • Morning Noon and Night – RPO
    • Poet & Peasant Overture – RPO
  • Tchaikovsky
    • Eugene Onegin , waltz – RPO
    • Francesca da Rimini – LPO
  • Vidal
    • Zino Zina Gavotte – RPO
  • Wagner
    • Die Meistersinger Prelude – RPO
    • Die Meistersinger Suite – RPO
    • Flying Dutchman Overture – RPO
    • Götterdämmerung Funeral March – RPO
    • Götterdämmerung Rhine Journey – RPO
    • Lohengrin Prelude – RPO
    • Parsifal Karfreitagszauber – RPO
  • Weber
    • Der Freischütz Overture – LPO
    • Oberon Overture – LPO
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References

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See also

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External links

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