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{{Short description|British conductor and impresario (1879–1961)}}
{{For|Beecham's grandfather|Thomas Beecham (chemist)}}
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[[File:Sir-Thomas-Beecham-US-1948.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Beecham rehearsing in 1948]]
'''Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CH}} (29 April 1879{{spaced ndash}}8 March 1961) was an English conductor and [[impresario]] best known for his association with the [[London Philharmonic Orchestra|London Philharmonic]] and the [[Royal Philharmonic Orchestra|Royal Philharmonic]] orchestras. He was also closely associated with the [[Royal Liverpool Philharmonic|Liverpool Philharmonic]] and [[The Hallé|Hallé]] orchestras. From the early 20th century until his death, Beecham was a major influence on the musical life of [[United Kingdom|Britain]] and, according to the [[BBC]], was Britain's first international conductor.

Born to a rich industrial family, Beecham began his career as a conductor in 1899. He used his access to the family fortune to finance opera from the 1910s until the start of the Second World War, staging seasons at [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]], [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Drury Lane]] and [[Her Majesty's Theatre|His Majesty's Theatre]] with international stars, his own orchestra and a wide repertoire. Among the works he introduced to England were [[Richard Strauss]]'s ''[[Elektra (opera)|Elektra]]'', ''[[Salome (opera)|Salome]]'' and ''[[Der Rosenkavalier]]'' and three operas by [[Frederick Delius]].

Together with his younger colleague [[Malcolm Sargent]], Beecham founded the London Philharmonic, and he conducted its first performance at the [[Queen's Hall]] in 1932. In the 1940s he worked for three years in the United States, where he was music director of the [[Seattle Symphony]] and conducted at the [[Metropolitan Opera]]. After his return to Britain, he founded the Royal Philharmonic in 1946 and conducted it until his death in 1961.

Beecham's repertoire was eclectic, sometimes favouring lesser-known composers over famous ones. His specialities included composers whose works were neglected in Britain before he became their advocate, such as Delius and [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]]. Other composers with whose music he was frequently associated were [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]], [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]], [[Jean Sibelius|Sibelius]] and the composer he revered above all others, [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]].

==Biography==

===Early years===
[[File:BeechamsBuilding.jpg|thumb|right|alt=exterior of nineteenth century industrial building|The Beecham factory in St Helens]]
Beecham was born in [[St Helens, Merseyside|St Helens]], Lancashire (now Merseyside), in a house adjoining the [[Beecham's Pills]] laxative factory founded by his grandfather, [[Thomas Beecham (chemist)|Thomas Beecham]].<ref name=reid19>Reid, p. 19</ref> His parents were [[Sir Joseph Beecham, 1st Baronet|Joseph Beecham]], the elder son of Thomas, and Josephine, ''née'' Burnett.<ref name=reid19/> In 1885, with the family firm flourishing financially, Joseph Beecham moved his family to a large house in Ewanville, [[Huyton]], near [[Liverpool]]. Their former home was demolished to make room for an extension to the pill factory.<ref>Lucas, p. 6</ref>

Beecham was educated at [[Rossall School]] between 1892 and 1897, after which he hoped to attend a music conservatoire in Germany, but his father forbade it, and instead Beecham went to [[Wadham College, Oxford]] to read [[Classics]].<ref>Reid, pp. 25–27</ref>  He did not find university life to his taste and successfully sought his father's permission to leave Oxford in 1898.<ref name=reid27>Reid, p. 27</ref> He studied as a pianist but, despite his excellent natural talent and fine technique, he had difficulty because of his small hands, and any career as a soloist was ruled out by a wrist injury in 1904.<ref name=dnb>Jefferson, Alan. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30670 "Beecham, Sir Thomas, second baronet (1879–1961)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 24 May 2016 {{ODNBsub}}</ref><ref>Lucas, p. 144</ref> He studied composition with [[Frederic Austin]] in Liverpool, [[Charles Wood (composer)|Charles Wood]] in London, and [[Moritz Moszkowski]] in Paris.{{#tag:ref|Beecham had first approached [[Charles Villiers Stanford]], but Stanford did not take private pupils.<ref name=lucas18>Lucas, pp. 12 and 18</ref> [[André Messager]] recommended Beecham to study with Moszkowski.<ref>Beecham (1959), p. 52</ref>|group= n}} As a conductor, he was self-taught.<ref name=grove>Crichton, Ronald, and John Lucas. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/02507 "Beecham, Sir Thomas"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford Music Online. Retrieved 13 March 2011 {{subscription}}</ref>

===First orchestras===
Beecham first conducted in public in St. Helens in October 1899, with an ''ad&nbsp;hoc'' ensemble comprising local musicians and players from the [[Royal Liverpool Philharmonic|Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra]] and [[the Hallé]] in Manchester.<ref name=reid27/> A month later, he stood in at short notice for the celebrated conductor [[Hans Richter (conductor)|Hans Richter]] at a concert by the Hallé to mark Joseph Beecham's inauguration as mayor of St Helens.<ref name=reid27/> Soon afterwards, Joseph Beecham secretly committed his wife to a mental hospital.{{refn|Lucas concludes that Josephine Beecham was suffering from [[post-natal depression]]. As Joseph Beecham was found to be keeping a mistress, his wife was able to obtain a judicial separation, which removed Joseph's right to block her release from the hospital.<ref>Lucas, p. 17</ref>|group= n}} Thomas and his elder sister Emily helped to secure their mother's release and to force their father to pay annual alimony of £4,500.<ref>Reid, pp. 31–34</ref> For this, Joseph disinherited them. Beecham was estranged from his father for ten years.<ref name=reid62/>

Beecham's professional début as a conductor was in 1902 at the Shakespeare Theatre, [[Clapham]], with [[Michael William Balfe|Balfe]]'s ''[[The Bohemian Girl]]'', for the Imperial Grand Opera Company.<ref name=lucas20>Lucas, p. 20</ref> He was engaged as assistant conductor for a tour and was allotted four other operas, including ''[[Carmen]]'' and ''[[Pagliacci]]''.<ref name=lucas20/> A Beecham biographer calls the company "grandly named but decidedly ramshackle",<ref name=lucas20/> though Beecham's Carmen was [[Zélie de Lussan]], a leading exponent of the title role.<ref>Lucas, p. 22</ref> Beecham was also composing music in these early years, but he was not satisfied with his own efforts and instead concentrated on conducting.<ref>Beecham (1959), p. 74</ref>{{refn|Beecham told an interviewer in 1910 that he spent a year composing, and produced three operas&nbsp;– two in English and one in Italian&nbsp;– and "once spent three weeks in trying to compose the first movement of a sonata", which led him to conclude that composition was not his forte.<ref>"Mr. Thomas Beecham", ''[[The Musical Times]]'', October 1910, p. 630</ref>|group= n}}

[[Image:Thomas Beecham (October 1910).jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Youngish man, with neat imperial beard and moustache, seated, supporting head with left hand|Beecham, c. 1910]]
[[File:Beecham-byEmu-1910.jpg|thumb|right|upright|alt=caricature of neatly bearded man in formal dress|Caricature of Beecham by "Emu", 1910]]
In 1906 Beecham was invited to conduct the [[New Symphony Orchestra (London)|New Symphony Orchestra]], a recently formed ensemble of 46 players, in a series of concerts at the [[Wigmore Hall|Bechstein Hall]] in London.<ref>Lucas, p. 32</ref> Throughout his career, Beecham frequently chose to programme works to suit his own tastes rather than those of the paying public. In his early discussions with his new orchestra, he proposed works by a long list of barely known composers such as [[Étienne Méhul]], [[Nicolas Dalayrac]] and [[Ferdinando Paer]].<ref>Reid, p. 54</ref> During this period, Beecham first encountered the music of [[Frederick Delius]], which he at once loved deeply and with which he became closely associated for the rest of his life.<ref>Jefferson, p. 32</ref>

Beecham quickly concluded that to compete with the two existing London orchestras, the [[Queen's Hall]] Orchestra and the recently founded [[London Symphony Orchestra]] (LSO), his forces must be expanded to full symphonic strength and play in larger halls.<ref>Lucas, p. 24</ref> For two years starting in October 1907, Beecham and the enlarged New Symphony Orchestra gave concerts at the Queen's Hall. He paid little attention to the box office: his programmes were described by a biographer as "even more certain to deter the public then than it would be in our own day".<ref name=reid55>Reid, p. 55</ref>  The principal pieces of his first concert with the orchestra were [[Vincent d'Indy|d'Indy]]'s symphonic ballad ''La forêt enchantée'', [[Bedřich Smetana|Smetana]]'s symphonic poem ''Šárka'', and [[Édouard Lalo|Lalo]]'s little-known [[Symphony in G minor (Lalo)|Symphony in G minor]].<ref>Reid, pp. 55–56</ref> Beecham retained an affection for the last work: it was among the works he conducted at his final recording sessions more than fifty years later.<ref name=salter>Salter, p. 4; and Procter-Gregg, pp. 37–38</ref>

In 1908 Beecham and the New Symphony Orchestra parted company, disagreeing about artistic control and, in particular, the deputy system. Under this system, orchestral players, if offered a better-paid engagement elsewhere, could send a substitute to a rehearsal or a concert.<ref>Russell, p. 10</ref>  The treasurer of the [[Royal Philharmonic Society]] described it thus: "''A'', whom you want, signs to play at your concert. He sends ''B'' (whom you don't mind) to the first rehearsal. ''B'', without your knowledge or consent, sends ''C'' to the second rehearsal. Not being able to play at the concert, ''C'' sends ''D'', whom you would have paid five shillings to stay away."<ref>Reid, p. 50</ref>{{refn|The lines are put into Beecham's mouth in the 1980 play ''Beecham'' by [[Caryl Brahms]] and [[Ned Sherrin]].|group= n}} [[Henry Wood]] had already banned the deputy system in the Queen's Hall Orchestra (provoking rebel players to found the London Symphony Orchestra), and Beecham followed suit.<ref name=reid70>Reid, p. 70</ref> The New Symphony Orchestra survived without him and subsequently became the [[Royal Albert Hall]] Orchestra.<ref name=reid70/>

In 1909, Beecham founded the Beecham Symphony Orchestra.<ref name=reid71>Reid, p. 71</ref> He did not poach from established symphony orchestras, but instead he recruited from theatre bandrooms, local symphony societies, the [[palm court]]s of hotels, and music colleges.<ref>Reid, pp. 70–71</ref> The result was a youthful team&nbsp;– the average age of his players was 25. They included names that would become celebrated in their fields, such as [[Albert Sammons]], [[Lionel Tertis]], [[Eric Coates]] and [[Eugene Cruft]].<ref name=reid71/>

Because he persistently programmed works that did not attract the public, Beecham's musical activities at this time consistently lost money. As a result of his estrangement from his father between 1899 and 1909, his access to the Beecham family fortune was strictly limited. From 1907 he had an annuity of £700 left to him in his grandfather's will, and his mother subsidised some of his loss-making concerts,<ref name=reid62>Reid, p. 62</ref> but it was not until father and son were reconciled in 1909 that Beecham was able to draw on the family fortune to promote opera.<ref>Reid, p. 88</ref>

===1910–1920===
From 1910, subsidised by his father, Beecham realised his ambition to mount opera seasons at [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]] and other houses. In the [[Edwardian era|Edwardian]] opera house, the star singers were regarded as all-important, and conductors were seen as ancillary.<ref name=reid98>Reid, p. 98</ref> Between 1910 and 1939 Beecham did much to change the balance of power.<ref name=reid98/>

[[File:Beecham-Strauss-Pitt-Walter.jpg|thumb|left|alt=face shots of four middle aged men, one bearded, one moustached, two clean shaven|Clockwise from top left: Beecham, [[Richard Strauss]], [[Bruno Walter]] and [[Percy Pitt]], all in 1910]]
In 1910, Beecham either conducted or was responsible as [[impresario]] for 190&nbsp;performances at Covent Garden and [[Her Majesty's Theatre|His Majesty's Theatre]]. His assistant conductors were [[Bruno Walter]] and [[Percy Pitt]].<ref>Beecham (1959), p. 88</ref> During the year, he mounted 34 different operas, most of them either new to London or almost unknown there.<ref>Reid, p. 97</ref> Beecham later acknowledged that in his early years the operas he chose to present were too obscure to attract the public.<ref>Reid, p. 108</ref> During his 1910 season at His Majesty's, the rival Grand Opera Syndicate put on a concurrent season of its own at Covent Garden; London's total opera performances for the year amounted to 273 performances, far more than the box-office demand could support.<ref>Reid, p. 96</ref> Of the 34 operas that Beecham staged in 1910, only four made money: [[Richard Strauss]]'s new operas ''[[Elektra (opera)|Elektra]]'' and ''[[Salome (opera)|Salome]],'' receiving their first, and highly publicised, performances in Britain, and ''[[The Tales of Hoffmann]]'' and ''[[Die Fledermaus]]''.<ref>Reid, p. 107</ref>{{refn|Of the other operas of Beecham's 1910 seasons, lesser-known pieces, such as ''[[A Village Romeo and Juliet]]'' (Delius), ''[[Hänsel und Gretel (opera)|Hansel and Gretel]], [[The Wreckers (opera)|The Wreckers]]'' ([[Ethel Smyth]]), ''[[L'enfant prodigue (Debussy)|L'enfant prodigue]]'' and ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Pelléas and Mélisande]]'' ([[Claude Debussy|Debussy]]), ''[[Ivanhoe (opera)|Ivanhoe]]'' ([[Arthur Sullivan|Sullivan]]), ''Shamus O'Brien'' ([[Charles Villiers Stanford|Stanford]]), ''Muguette'' (Edmond de Misa),'' [[Werther]]'' ([[Jules Massenet|Massenet]]), ''[[Feuersnot]]'' (Richard Strauss) and ''A Summer Night'' ([[George Clutsam]]) outnumbered the more popular pieces, such as Wagner's ''[[Der fliegende Holländer|The Flying Dutchman]]'' and ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'', Bizet's ''Carmen,'' Verdi's ''[[Rigoletto]]'' and five [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] works: ''[[Così fan tutte]]'', ''[[The Marriage of Figaro]]'', ''[[Der Schauspieldirektor]]'', ''[[Die Entführung aus dem Serail]]'' and ''[[Don Giovanni]]''.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 111–119</ref>|group= n}}

In 1911 and 1912, the Beecham Symphony Orchestra played for [[Sergei Diaghilev]]'s [[Ballets Russes]], both at Covent Garden and at the [[Kroll Opera House|Krolloper]] in Berlin, under the batons of Beecham and [[Pierre Monteux]], Diaghilev's chief conductor. Beecham was much admired for conducting the complicated new score of [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]]'s ''[[Petrushka]]'', at two days' notice and without rehearsal, when Monteux became unavailable.<ref>Canarina, p. 39</ref> While in Berlin, Beecham and his orchestra, in Beecham's words, caused a "mild stir", scoring a triumph: the orchestra was agreed by the Berlin press to be an elite body, one of the best in the world.<ref name=reid123>Reid, p. 123</ref>  The principal Berlin musical weekly, ''Die Signale'', asked, "Where does London find such magnificent young instrumentalists?"  The violins were credited with rich, noble tone, the woodwinds with lustre, the brass, "which has not quite the dignity and amplitude of our best German brass", with uncommon delicacy of execution.<ref name=reid123/>

[[File:Karsavina-Salome.jpg|thumb|right|alt=full length portrait of ballerina in exotic costume|[[Tamara Karsavina]] as Salome in the Beecham Russian ballet season, 1913]]
Beecham's 1913 seasons included the British premiere of Strauss's ''[[Der Rosenkavalier]]'' at Covent Garden, and a "Grand Season of Russian Opera and Ballet" at [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Drury Lane]].<ref>Reid, p. 141</ref> At the latter there were three operas, all starring [[Feodor Chaliapin]], and all new to Britain: [[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]]'s ''[[Boris Godunov (opera)|Boris Godunov]]'' and ''[[Khovanshchina]]'', and [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov]]'s [[The Maid of Pskov|''Ivan the Terrible'']]. There were also 15 ballets, with leading dancers including [[Vaslav Nijinsky]] and [[Tamara Karsavina]].<ref name=reid142>Reid, p. 142</ref> The ballets included [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]]'s ''[[Jeux]]'' and his controversially erotic ''[[Afternoon of a Faun (Nijinsky)|L'après-midi d'un faune]],'' and the British premiere of Stravinsky's ''[[The Rite of Spring]],'' six weeks after its first performance in Paris.<ref name=reid142/> Beecham shared Monteux's private dislike of the piece, much preferring ''Petrushka''.<ref>Reid, p. 145</ref> Beecham did not conduct during this season; Monteux and others conducted the Beecham Symphony Orchestra. The following year, Beecham and his father presented Rimsky-Korsakov's ''[[The Maid of Pskov]]'' and [[Alexander Borodin|Borodin]]'s ''[[Prince Igor]]'', with Chaliapin, and Stravinsky's ''[[The Nightingale (opera)|The Nightingale]].''<ref name=grove/>

During the First World War, Beecham strove, often without a fee, to keep music alive in London, Liverpool, Manchester and other British cities.<ref>Reid, pp. 161–162</ref> He conducted for, and gave financial support to, three institutions with which he was connected at various times: the Hallé Orchestra, the LSO and the Royal Philharmonic Society. In 1915 he formed the [[Beecham Opera Company]], with mainly British singers, performing in London and throughout the country. In 1916, he received a [[Knight Bachelor|knighthood]] in the [[1916 New Year Honours|New Year Honours]]<ref>"The Honours List", ''[[The Times]]'', 1 January 1916, p. 9</ref> and succeeded to the [[baronet]]cy on his father's death later that year.<ref>Lucas, p. 136</ref>

After the war, there were joint Covent Garden seasons with the Grand Opera Syndicate in 1919 and 1920, but these were, according to a biographer, pale confused echoes of the years before 1914.<ref name=reid181>Reid, p. 181</ref> These seasons included forty productions, of which Beecham conducted only nine.<ref name=reid181/> After the 1920 season, Beecham temporarily withdrew from conducting to deal with a financial problem that he described as "the most trying and unpleasant experience of my life".<ref>Beecham (1959), p. 181</ref>

===Covent Garden estate===
[[File:Covent-garden-panorama-1913.jpg|thumb|left|400px|alt=roofscape of inner London in 1913|1913 panorama of the Covent Garden estate]]
Influenced by an ambitious financier, [[James White (financier)|James White]], Sir Joseph Beecham had agreed, in July 1914, to buy the Covent Garden estate from the [[Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford|Duke of Bedford]] and float a [[limited company]] to manage the estate commercially.<ref name=beecham142>Beecham (1959), p. 142</ref> The deal was described by ''[[The Times]]'' as "one of the largest ever carried out in real estate in London".<ref>"Covent Garden Estate: Sale of the Property to Sir Joseph Beecham", ''The Times'', 7 July 1914, p. 8</ref> Sir Joseph paid an initial deposit of £200,000 and covenanted to pay the balance of the £2&nbsp;million purchase price on 11 November. Within a month, however, the First World War broke out, and new official restrictions on the use of capital prevented the completion of the contract.<ref name=beecham142/>  The estate and market continued to be managed by the Duke's staff, and in October 1916, Joseph Beecham died suddenly, with the transaction still uncompleted.<ref name=sol>Sheppard, F. H. W. (ed). [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46089 "The Bedford Estate: The Sale of the Estate"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629214609/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46089 |date=29 June 2011 }}, ''Survey of London, Volume 36: Covent Garden'' (1970), pp. 48–52. Retrieved 14 March 2011</ref> The matter was brought before the civil courts with the aim of disentangling Sir Joseph's affairs; the court and all parties agreed that a private company should be formed, with his two sons as directors, to complete the Covent Garden contract. In July 1918, the Duke and his trustees conveyed the estate to the new company, subject to a mortgage of the balance of the purchase price still outstanding: £1.25&nbsp;million.<ref name=sol/>

Beecham and his brother Henry had to sell enough of their father's estate to discharge this mortgage. For more than three years, Beecham was absent from the musical scene, working to sell property worth over £1&nbsp;million.<ref name=sol/>  By 1923 enough money had been raised. The mortgage was discharged, and Beecham's personal liabilities, amounting to £41,558, were paid in full.<ref>"Sir Thomas Beecham to Pay in Full: The Receiving Order Discharged", ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'', 29 March 1923, p. 10</ref> In 1924 the Covent Garden property and the pill-making business at St Helens were united in one company, Beecham Estates and Pills. The nominal capital was £1,850,000, of which Beecham had a substantial share.<ref name=sol/>

===London Philharmonic===
After his absence, Beecham first reappeared on the rostrum conducting the Hallé in Manchester in March 1923, in a programme including works by [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]], [[Georges Bizet|Bizet]], Delius and [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]].<ref>[[Samuel Langford|Langford, Samuel]]. "The Hallé Concerts: Sir Thomas Beecham's Return", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 16 March 1923, p.18</ref>  He returned to London the following month, conducting the combined Royal Albert Hall Orchestra (the renamed New Symphony Orchestra) and London Symphony Orchestra in April 1923. The main work on the programme was Richard Strauss's ''[[Ein Heldenleben]]''.<ref>"Albert Hall Concert: Sir Thomas Beecham's Return", ''The Times'', 9 April 1923, p. 10</ref>  No longer with an orchestra of his own, Beecham established a relationship with the London Symphony Orchestra that lasted for the rest of the 1920s. Towards the end of the decade, he negotiated inconclusively with the BBC over the possibility of establishing a permanent radio orchestra.<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 138</ref>

In 1931, Beecham was approached by the rising young conductor [[Malcolm Sargent]] with a proposal to set up a permanent, salaried orchestra with a subsidy guaranteed by Sargent's patrons, the Courtauld family.<ref>Aldous, p. 68</ref> Originally Sargent and Beecham envisaged a reshuffled version of the London Symphony Orchestra, but the LSO, a self-governing co-operative, balked at weeding out and replacing underperforming players. In 1932 Beecham lost patience and agreed with Sargent to set up a new orchestra from scratch.<ref>Reid, p. 202</ref> The [[London Philharmonic Orchestra]] (LPO), as it was named, consisted of 106 players including a few young musicians straight from music college, many established players from provincial orchestras, and 17 of the LSO's leading members.<ref>Morrison, p. 79</ref> The principals included [[Paul Beard (violinist)|Paul Beard]], George Stratton, [[Anthony Pini]], [[Gerald Jackson]], [[Léon Goossens]], [[Reginald Kell]], James Bradshaw and [[Marie Goossens]].<ref>Russell, p. 135</ref>

[[File:Opening-concert-Queen's-Hall.jpg|thumb|left|alt=interior of nineteenth century concert hall, with audience in place|250px|The [[Queen's Hall]], the London Philharmonic's first home]]
The orchestra made its debut at the Queen's Hall on 7 October 1932, conducted by Beecham. After the first item, Berlioz's ''[[Overtures by Hector Berlioz#Le carnaval romain|Roman Carnival Overture]]'', the audience went wild, some of them standing on their seats to clap and shout.<ref>Russell, p. 18</ref> During the next eight years, the LPO appeared nearly a hundred times at the Queen's Hall for the Royal Philharmonic Society alone, played for Beecham's opera seasons at Covent Garden, and made more than 300 gramophone records.<ref name=jefferson89>Jefferson, p. 89</ref> [[Berta Geissmar]], his secretary from 1936, wrote, "The relations between the Orchestra and Sir Thomas were always easy and cordial. He always treated a rehearsal as a joint undertaking with the Orchestra.{{space}}… The musicians were entirely unselfconscious with him. Instinctively they accorded him the artistic authority which he did not expressly claim. Thus he obtained the best from them and they gave it without reserve."<ref>Geissmar, p. 267</ref>

By the early 1930s, Beecham had secured substantial control of the Covent Garden opera seasons.<ref>Jefferson, p. 171</ref> Wishing to concentrate on music-making rather than management, he assumed the role of artistic director, and [[Geoffrey Toye]] was recruited as managing director. In 1933, ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'' with [[Frida Leider]] and [[Lauritz Melchior]] was a success, and the season continued with the ''[[Der Ring des Nibelungen|Ring]]'' cycle and nine other operas.<ref>Jefferson, p. 170</ref> The 1934 season featured [[Conchita Supervía]] in ''[[La Cenerentola]],'' and [[Lotte Lehmann]] and [[Alexander Kipnis]] in the ''Ring''.<ref>Jefferson, p. 173</ref> [[Clemens Krauss]] conducted the British première of Strauss's ''[[Arabella]]''. During 1933 and 1934, Beecham repelled attempts by [[John Christie (opera manager)|John Christie]] to form a link between Christie's new [[Glyndebourne Festival Opera|Glyndebourne Festival]] and the Royal Opera House.<ref>Jefferson, p. 172</ref> Beecham and Toye fell out over the latter's insistence on bringing in a popular film star, [[Grace Moore]], to sing Mimi in ''[[La bohème]]''. The production was a box-office success, but an artistic failure.<ref>Jefferson, p. 175</ref> Beecham manoeuvred Toye out of the managing directorship in what their fellow conductor [[Adrian Boult|Sir Adrian Boult]] described as an "absolutely beastly" manner.<ref>Kennedy (1989), p. 174</ref>

From 1935 to 1939, Beecham, now in sole control, presented international seasons with eminent guest singers and conductors.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 178–190</ref> Beecham conducted between a third and half of the performances each season. He intended the 1940 season to include the first complete performances of Berlioz's ''[[Les Troyens]]'', but the outbreak of the Second World War caused the season to be abandoned. Beecham did not conduct again at Covent Garden until 1951, and by then it was no longer under his control.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 178–190 and 197</ref>
[[File:Hitler-Beecham-fake-press-photo.jpg|thumb|Fake photograph in Nazi press supposedly showing Beecham (right) in [[Adolf Hitler]]'s box during the 1936 LPO tour of Germany<ref>Jefferson, p. 194</ref>|alt=blurred and doctored press photograph showing a group in a box in a concert hall]]
Beecham took the London Philharmonic on a controversial tour of Germany in 1936.<ref>Russell, p. 39</ref> There were complaints that he was being used by [[Nazi]] propagandists, and Beecham complied with a Nazi request not to play the ''Scottish'' Symphony of [[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]], who was a Christian by faith but a Jew by birth.{{refn|According to the biographer John Lucas, Beecham had intended to insist on including the Mendelssohn symphony, but was dissuaded by his assistant, Berta Geissmar, a Jewish refugee from the Nazis.<ref>Lucas, p. 231</ref> Geissmar herself says that she simply passed on a message from the German foreign minister, and the decision was Beecham's.<ref>Geissmar p. 233</ref> Throughout the tour, the orchestra flouted the custom of playing the Nazi anthem before concerts.<ref>Russell, p. 42</ref>|group= n}} In Berlin, Beecham's concert was attended by [[Adolf Hitler]], whose lack of punctuality caused Beecham to remark very audibly, "The old bugger's late."<ref>Lucas, p. 232</ref> After this tour, Beecham refused renewed invitations to give concerts in Germany,<ref>Reid, pp. 217–218</ref> although he honoured contractual commitments to conduct at the [[Berlin State Opera]], in 1937 and 1938, and recorded ''The Magic Flute'' for [[EMI Records|EMI]] in the Beethovensaal in Berlin in the same years.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 214–215</ref>

As his sixtieth birthday approached, Beecham was advised by his doctors to take a year's complete break from music, and he planned to go abroad to rest in a warm climate.<ref name=Lucas239>Lucas, p. 239</ref> The [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|Australian Broadcasting Commission]] had been seeking for several years to get him to conduct in Australia.<ref name=Lucas239/> The outbreak of war on 3 September 1939 obliged him to postpone his plans for several months, striving instead to secure the future of the London Philharmonic, whose financial guarantees had been withdrawn by its backers when war was declared.<ref name=reid218>Reid, p. 218</ref> Before leaving, Beecham raised large sums of money for the orchestra and helped its members to form themselves into a self-governing company.<ref>Lucas, p. 240</ref>

===1940s===
Beecham left Britain in the spring of 1940, going first to Australia and then to North America. He became music director of the [[Seattle Symphony]] in 1941.<ref>Jefferson, p. 222</ref> In 1942 he joined the [[Metropolitan Opera]] as joint senior conductor with his former assistant Bruno Walter. He began with his own adaptation of [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach's]] comic cantata, ''Phoebus and Pan'', followed by ''[[The Golden Cockerel|Le Coq d'Or]]''. His main repertoire was French: ''Carmen, Louise'' (with Grace Moore), ''Manon'', ''[[Faust (opera)|Faust]]'', ''[[Mignon]]'' and ''The Tales of Hoffmann''. In addition to his Seattle and New York posts, Beecham was guest conductor with 18 American orchestras.<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 201</ref>

In 1944, Beecham returned to Britain. Musically his reunion with the London Philharmonic was triumphant, but the orchestra, now, after his help in 1939, a self-governing [[cooperative|co-operative]], attempted to hire him on its own terms as its salaried artistic director.<ref>Reid, p. 230</ref>  "I emphatically refuse", concluded Beecham, "to be wagged by any orchestra ... I am going to found one more great orchestra to round off my career."<ref name=reid231>Reid, p. 231</ref> When [[Walter Legge]] founded the [[Philharmonia Orchestra]] in 1945, Beecham conducted its first concert. But he was not disposed to accept a salaried position from Legge, his former assistant, any more than from his former players in the LPO.<ref name=reid231/>
[[File:Thomas Beecham 1946.jpg|Beecham by [[Karsh of Ottawa]], 1946|thumb|left|upright|alt=elderly white man with white receding hair and very small moustache and imperial beard, in contemporary lounge suit, facing the camera but not looking directly at it]]
In 1946, Beecham founded the [[Royal Philharmonic Orchestra]] (RPO), securing an agreement with the Royal Philharmonic Society that the new orchestra should replace the LPO at all the Society's concerts.<ref name=reid231/> Beecham later agreed with the Glyndebourne Festival that the RPO should be the resident orchestra at Glyndebourne each summer. He secured backing, including that of record companies in the US as well as Britain, with whom lucrative recording contracts were negotiated.<ref name=reid231/> As in 1909 and in 1932, Beecham's assistants recruited in the freelance pool and elsewhere. Original members of the RPO included James Bradshaw, [[Dennis Brain]], Leonard Brain, [[Archie Camden]], Gerald Jackson and Reginald Kell.<ref>Reid, p. 232</ref> The orchestra later became celebrated for its regular team of woodwind principals, often referred to as "The Royal Family", consisting of [[Jack Brymer]] (clarinet), [[Gwydion Brooke]] (bassoon), [[Terence MacDonagh]] (oboe) and Gerald Jackson (flute).<ref>Jenkins (2000), p. 5</ref>

Beecham's long association with the Hallé Orchestra as a guest conductor ceased after [[John Barbirolli]] became the orchestra's chief conductor in 1944. Beecham was, to his great indignation, ousted from the honorary presidency of the Hallé Concerts Society,<ref>Lucas, pp. 308–310</ref> and Barbirolli refused to "let that man near my orchestra".<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 189</ref> Beecham's relationship with the Liverpool Philharmonic, which he had first conducted in 1911, was resumed harmoniously after the war. A manager of the orchestra recalled, "It was an unwritten law in Liverpool that first choice of dates offered to guest conductors was given to Beecham. ... In Liverpool there was one over-riding factor – he was adored."<ref>Stiff, Wilfred, ''quoted in'' Procter-Gregg, pp. 113–114</ref>

===1950s and later years===
Beecham, whom the BBC called "Britain's first international conductor",<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zddd4 "CD Review"], BBC Radio 3, 12 March 2011. Retrieved 12 March 2011</ref> took the RPO on a strenuous tour through the United States, Canada and South Africa in 1950.<ref name=grove/><ref name=dnb/> During the North American tour, Beecham conducted 49 concerts in almost daily succession.<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 200</ref> In 1951, he was invited to conduct at Covent Garden after a 12-year absence.<ref name=reid236>Reid, p. 236</ref> State-funded for the first time, the opera company operated quite differently from his pre-war regime. Instead of short, star-studded seasons, with a major symphony orchestra, the new director [[David Webster (opera manager)|David Webster]] was attempting to build up a permanent ensemble of home-grown talent performing all the year round, in English translations. Extreme economy in productions and great attention to the box-office were essential, and Beecham, though he had been hurt and furious at his exclusion, was not suited to participate in such an undertaking.<ref>Haltrecht, p. 106</ref> When offered a chorus of eighty singers for his return, conducting ''[[Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg|Die Meistersinger]]'', he insisted on augmenting their number to 200. He also, contrary to Webster's policy, insisted on performing the piece in German.<ref name=reid236/> In 1953 at [[Oxford]], Beecham presented the world premiere of Delius's first opera, ''[[Irmelin]]'', and his last operatic performances in Britain were in 1955 at [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], with [[André Grétry|Grétry]]'s ''Zémire et Azor''.<ref name=dnb/>

Between 1951 and 1960, Beecham conducted 92 concerts at the [[Royal Festival Hall]].<ref>Jefferson, p. 103</ref> Characteristic Beecham programmes of the RPO years included symphonies by Bizet, [[César Franck|Franck]], [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]], [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]] and [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]]; Richard Strauss's ''Ein Heldenleben''; concertos by Mozart and [[Camille Saint-Saëns|Saint-Saëns]]; a Delius and [[Jean Sibelius|Sibelius]] programme; and many of his favoured shorter pieces.<ref>"Concerts", ''The Times'', 13 and 29 September 18 and 25 October 1, 15 and 29 November and 6 December 1958</ref> He did not stick uncompromisingly to his familiar repertoire. After the sudden death of the German conductor [[Wilhelm Furtwängler]] in 1954, Beecham in tribute conducted the two programmes his colleague had been due to present at the Festival Hall; these included Bach's [[Brandenburg concertos|Third Brandenburg Concerto]], [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]]'s ''[[Rapsodie espagnole]]'', [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]]'s [[Symphony No. 1 (Brahms)|Symphony No. 1]], and [[Samuel Barber|Barber]]'s ''Second Essay for Orchestra''.<ref>"Concerts", ''The Times'', 19 and 21 January 1955</ref>

[[File:Thomas Beecham grave.jpg|thumb|alt=Beecham's gravestone|Beecham's grave at St Peter's Church in [[Limpsfield]], Surrey. His epitaph is from the play ''[[The False One]]'' by [[Francis Beaumont]] and [[Philip Massinger]], Act 2 Scene 1, 169. ]]
In the summer of 1958, Beecham conducted a season at the [[Teatro Colón]], Buenos Aires, Argentina, consisting of Verdi's ''[[Otello]],'' Bizet's ''Carmen'', Beethoven's ''[[Fidelio]],'' Saint-Saëns's ''[[Samson and Delilah (opera)|Samson and Delilah]]'' and Mozart's ''The Magic Flute''. These were his last operatic performances.<ref name=reid238>Reid, pp. 238–239</ref> It was during this season that Betty Humby died suddenly.  She was cremated in Buenos Aires and her ashes returned to England. Beecham's own last illness prevented his operatic debut at Glyndebourne in a planned ''Magic Flute'' and a final appearance at Covent Garden conducting Berlioz's ''The Trojans''.{{refn|Colin Davis, Beecham's assistant for the Glyndebourne production, took on the ''Magic Flute'' performances, and [[Rafael Kubelík]] conducted the Berlioz.<ref>"Sudden Setback for Sir Thomas Beecham", ''The Times'', 13 July 1960, p. 12; and "''The Trojans'' Revived", ''The Times'', 30 April 1960, p. 10</ref>|group= n}}

Sixty-six years after his first visit to America, Beecham made his last, beginning in late 1959, conducting in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and Washington. During this tour, he also conducted in Canada. He flew back to London on 12 April 1960 and did not leave England again.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 21 and 226–27</ref> His final concert was at [[Portsmouth Guildhall]] on 7 May 1960. The programme, all characteristic choices, comprised the ''Magic Flute'' Overture, Haydn's [[Symphony No. 100 (Haydn)|Symphony No. 100]] (the ''Military''), Beecham's own Handel arrangement, ''Love in Bath'', Schubert's [[Symphony No. 5 (Schubert)|Symphony No. 5]], ''On the River'' by Delius, and the ''Bacchanale'' from ''Samson and Delilah''.<ref>Reid, p. 244</ref>

Beecham died of a [[coronary thrombosis]] at his London residence, aged 81, on 8 March 1961.<ref>Reid, p. 245</ref> He was buried two days later in [[Brookwood Cemetery]], Surrey. Owing to changes at Brookwood, his remains were exhumed in 1991 and reburied in [[Church of St Peter, Limpsfield|St Peter]]'s Churchyard at [[Limpsfield]], Surrey, close to the joint grave of Delius and his wife [[Jelka Rosen]].<ref>Lucas, p. 339</ref>

===Personal life===
[[File:Adrian-Beecham.jpg|thumb|left|150px|alt=full length portrait of young man in 1920s clothes|Beecham's son, the composer Adrian Beecham]]
Beecham was married three times. In 1903 he married Utica Celestina Welles, daughter of Dr Charles S. Welles, of New York, and his wife Ella Celeste, ''née'' Miles.<ref>Lucas, pp. 11, 12 and 24</ref> Beecham and his wife had two sons: Adrian, born in 1904, who became a composer and achieved some celebrity in the 1920s and 1930s,<ref>"The World of Music", ''[[The Illustrated London News]]'', 30 September 1922, p. 514</ref> and Thomas, born in 1909.<ref name=reid62/> After the birth of his second child, Beecham began to drift away from the marriage. By 1911, no longer living with his wife and family, he was involved as co-respondent in a much-publicised divorce case.<ref>Reid, pp. 112–120</ref> Utica ignored advice that she should divorce him and secure substantial alimony; she did not believe in divorce.<ref name=reid120>Reid, p. 120</ref> She never remarried after Beecham divorced her (in 1943), and she outlived her former husband by sixteen years, dying in 1977.<ref>Obituary, ''The Times'', 14 October 1977, p. 17</ref>

In 1909 or early 1910, Beecham began an affair with Maud Alice (known as Emerald), [[Maud Cunard|Lady Cunard]]. Although they never lived together, it continued, despite other relationships on his part, until his remarriage in 1943.<ref name=dnb/> She was a tireless fund-raiser for his musical enterprises.<ref>Reid, pp. 134–137</ref> Beecham's biographers are agreed that she was in love with him, but that his feelings for her were less strong.<ref name=reid120/><ref>Jefferson, p. 39</ref> During the 1920s and 1930s, Beecham also had an affair with [[Dora Labbette]], a soprano sometimes known as Lisa Perli, with whom he had a son, Paul Strang, born in March 1933.<ref>Lucas, p. 212</ref> Strang, a lawyer who served on the boards of several musical institutions, died in April 2024.<ref>''[https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/remembering-paul-strang-1933-2024/ Remembering Paul Strang (1933–2024)]'', Trinity Laban, 4 April 2024</ref>

In 1943 Lady Cunard was devastated to learn (not from Beecham) that he intended to divorce Utica to marry [[Betty Humby Beecham|Betty Humby]], a concert pianist 29 years his junior.<ref name=reid220>Reid, p. 220</ref> Beecham married Betty in 1943, and they were a devoted couple until her death in 1958.<ref name=reid238/> On 10 August 1959, two years before his death, he married in Zurich his former secretary, Shirley Hudson, who had worked for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's administration since 1950. She was 27, he 80.<ref>Reid, p. 241</ref>

==Repertoire==

===Handel, Haydn, and Mozart===
{{see also|Beecham-Handel suites}}
[[File:Teyte-Cherubino.jpg|thumb|right|150px|alt=full length portrait of a woman dressed as a boy in eighteenth century military costume|[[Maggie Teyte]] as Cherubino in Beecham's 1910 production of ''[[The Marriage of Figaro]]'']]
The earliest composer whose music Beecham regularly performed was [[George Frideric Handel|Handel]], whom he called, "the great international master of all time. ... He wrote Italian music better than any Italian; French music better than any Frenchman; English music better than any Englishman; and, with the exception of Bach, outrivalled all other Germans."<ref>Beecham (1992), p. 5</ref> In his performances of Handel, Beecham ignored what he called the "professors, pedants, pedagogues".<ref name=jefferson236>Jefferson, p. 236</ref> He followed Mendelssohn and Mozart in editing and reorchestrating Handel's scores to suit contemporary tastes.<ref name=jefferson236/> At a time when Handel's operas were scarcely known, Beecham knew them so well that he was able to arrange three ballets, two other suites and a piano concerto from them.{{refn|The Handel works on which Beecham drew included ''[[Admeto]], [[Alcina]], [[Ariodante]], [[Clori, Tirsi e Fileno]], [[Lotario (Handel)|Lotario]], Il Parnasso in Festa, [[Il pastor fido]], [[Radamisto (Handel)|Radamisto]], [[Rinaldo (opera)|Rinaldo]], [[Rodrigo]], [[Serse]], [[Teseo]]'' and ''[[The Triumph of Time and Truth]]''.<ref>Golding, pp 3–6; and Melville-Mason (Handel), pp. 4–5</ref>|group= n}} He gave Handel's oratorio ''[[Solomon (Handel)|Solomon]]'' its first performance since the 18th century, with a text edited by the conductor.<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 14</ref>

With Haydn, too, Beecham was far from an authenticist, using unscholarly 19th-century versions of the scores, avoiding the use of the [[harpsichord]], and phrasing the music romantically.<ref name=gramhaydn/> He recorded the twelve "[[London symphonies|London]]" symphonies, and regularly programmed some of them in his concerts.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 235–236</ref> Earlier Haydn works were unfamiliar in the first half of the 20th century, but Beecham conducted several of them, including the [[Symphony No. 40 (Joseph Haydn)|Symphony No. 40]] and an early piano concerto.<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 197</ref> He programmed ''[[The Seasons (Haydn)|The Seasons]]'' regularly throughout his career, recording it for [[EMI]] in 1956, and in 1944 added ''[[The Creation (Haydn)|The Creation]]'' to his repertoire.<ref name=jefferson236/>

For Beecham, Mozart was "the central point of European music,"<ref>Jefferson, p. 238</ref> and he treated the composer's scores with more deference than he gave most others. He edited the incomplete [[Requiem (Mozart)|Requiem]], made English translations of at least two of the great operas, and introduced Covent Garden audiences who had rarely if ever heard them to ''[[Così fan tutte]]'', ''[[Der Schauspieldirektor]]'' and ''[[Die Entführung aus dem Serail]]''; he also regularly programmed ''[[The Magic Flute]]'', ''[[Don Giovanni]]'' and ''[[The Marriage of Figaro]]''.<ref>Lucas, pp. 62–63</ref>{{refn|Beecham liked to claim that he introduced ''Così fan tutte'' to Britain.<ref name=pg182>Procter-Gregg, p. 182.</ref> In fact, although he gave its first British performance for decades at His Majesty's Theatre in 1910, it had been performed in London in 1811,<ref name=holden>Holden, p. 253</ref><ref>"King's Theatre", ''The Times'', 7 May 1811, p. 4; and 29 June 1811, p. 2</ref> in 1818<ref>"King's Theatre", ''The Times'', 12 June 1818, p. 2; and 21 July 1818, p. 2</ref> and again by the St. George's Opera Company in 1873, attracting very favourable comment from ''The Times''.<ref>"St. George's Opera", ''The Times'', 21 January 1873, p. 4</ref> Beecham was, however, correct when he teased an American lecture audience that ''Così fan tutte'' did not appear in the US until "about thirteen years" after his London production.<ref name=pg182/> The US premiere was in 1922.<ref name=holden/>|group= n}} He considered the best of Mozart's piano concertos to be "the most beautiful compositions of their kind in the world", and he played them many times with Betty Humby-Beecham and others.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 115 and 238</ref>

===German music===
[[File:Rosenkavalier-1913.jpg|thumb|left|alt=scene from operatic production, showing a man, woman and girl in 18th century costume|Beecham's 1913 production of Strauss's ''[[Der Rosenkavalier]]'']]
Beecham's attitude towards 19th-century German repertoire was equivocal. He frequently disparaged Beethoven, Wagner and others, but regularly conducted their works, often with great success.<ref name=cardus60>Cardus, p. 60</ref> He observed, "Wagner, though a tremendous genius, gorged music like a German who overeats. And [[Anton Bruckner|Bruckner]] was a hobbledehoy who had no style at all&nbsp;... Even Beethoven thumped the tub; the [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Ninth symphony]] was composed by a kind of Mr. [[William Ewart Gladstone|Gladstone]] of music."<ref name=cardus60/> Despite his criticisms, Beecham conducted all the Beethoven symphonies during his career, and he made studio recordings of Nos. 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8, and live recordings of No. 9 and ''[[Missa Solemnis (Beethoven)|Missa Solemnis]]''.<ref>Jenkins (1988), p. 3; and [http://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_all&q=Beethoven+Thomas+Beecham "Search results: Beethoven/Thomas Beecham"], WorldCat. Retrieved 2 May 2014</ref> He conducted the [[Piano Concerto No. 4 (Beethoven)|Fourth Piano Concerto]] with pleasure (recording it with [[Arthur Rubinstein]] and the LPO) but avoided the ''[[Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven)|Emperor Concerto]]'' when possible.<ref name=jefferson235>Jefferson, p. 235</ref>

Beecham was not known for his Bach<ref>Cardus, p. 28</ref> but nonetheless chose Bach (arranged by Beecham) for his debut at the Metropolitan Opera. He later gave the Third [[Brandenburg concertos|Brandenburg Concerto]] in one of his memorial concerts for Wilhelm Furtwängler (a performance described by ''The Times'' as "a travesty, albeit an invigorating one").<ref>"Concerts", ''The Times'', 19 January 1955</ref> In Brahms's music, Beecham was selective. He made a speciality of the [[Symphony No. 2 (Brahms)|Second Symphony]]<ref name=jefferson235/> but conducted the [[Symphony No. 3 (Brahms)|Third]] only occasionally,{{refn|Beecham gave a "blazing" performance of it at a memorial concert for [[Arturo Toscanini]] in New York in January 1957.<ref>Lucas, p. 331</ref>|group= n}} the First rarely, and the [[Symphony No. 4 (Brahms)|Fourth]] never. <!--adequate citation is needed for this: He sometimes conducted the German Requiem, but judged it "a ''dull'' piece";<ref>Baillie, Isobel, ''Never Sing Louder than Lovely'' his 1956 recording of an English-language [[Schicksalslied]] (a work sometimes termed a "Little Requiem")<ref>Edwin Evans. Handbook to the Vocal Works of Brahms. London: W. M. Reeves, 1912.</ref> has been described as "a deeply-felt and eloquently expressed performance...[Beecham] gets to the heart of Brahms's serious Germanic inspiration in such revelatory fashion."<ref>http://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/beecham-conducts-brahms {{Bare URL inline|date=January 2022}}</ref>--> In his memoirs he made no mention of any Brahms performance after the year 1909.<ref>Beecham (1959), p. 81</ref>

Beecham was a great [[Richard Wagner|Wagnerian]],<ref>Cardus, p. 109; Procter-Gregg, p. 77; and Melville-Mason (Wagner), p. 4</ref> despite his frequent expostulation about the composer's length and repetitiousness: "We've been rehearsing for two hours&nbsp;– and we're still playing the same bloody tune!"<ref>Reid, p. 206</ref>  Beecham conducted all the works in the regular Wagner canon with the exception of ''[[Parsifal]]'', which he presented at Covent Garden but never with himself in the pit.<ref>Jefferson, p. 189</ref><ref name=pg203>Procter-Gregg, p. 203</ref> The chief music critic of ''The Times'' observed: "Beecham's ''[[Lohengrin (opera)|Lohengrin]]'' was almost Italian in its lyricism; his ''Ring'' was less heroic than Bruno Walter's or Furtwängler's, but it sang from beginning to end".<ref>Howes, Frank, ''quoted in'' Procter-Gregg, p. 77</ref>

Richard Strauss had a lifelong champion in Beecham, who introduced ''Elektra'', ''Salome'', ''Der Rosenkavalier'' and other operas to England. Beecham programmed ''Ein Heldenleben'' from 1910 until his last year; his final recording of it was released shortly after his death.<ref name=jefferson235/><ref>Greenfield, Edward. "Strauss, Richard. ''Ein Heldenleben''", ''Gramophone'', June 1961, p. 32</ref> ''[[Don Quixote (Strauss)|Don Quixote]], [[Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks|Till Eulenspiegel]]'', the ''Bourgeois Gentilhomme'' music and ''[[Don Juan (Strauss)|Don Juan]]'' also featured in his repertory, but not ''[[Also sprach Zarathustra (Strauss)|Also Sprach Zarathustra]]'' or ''[[Death and Transfiguration|Tod und Verklärung]]''.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 234–235</ref> Strauss had the first and last pages of the manuscript of ''Elektra'' framed and presented them to "my highly honoured friend ... and distinguished conductor of my work."<ref>"Composer's Gift to Sir T. Beecham", ''The Times'', 22 April 1938, p. 12</ref>

===French and Italian music===
In the opinion of the jury of the Académie du Disque Français, "Sir Thomas Beecham has done more for French music abroad than any French conductor".<ref>Atkins, p. 15</ref> Berlioz featured prominently in Beecham's repertoire throughout his career, and in an age when the composer's works received little exposure, Beecham presented most of them and recorded many. Along with [[Colin Davis|Sir Colin Davis]], Beecham has been described as one of the two "foremost modern interpreters" of Berlioz's music.<ref>Lebrecht, Norman. [http://www.scena.org/columns/lebrecht/031210-NL-Berlioz.html "Hector Berlioz&nbsp;– the Unloved Genius"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110510004622/http://www.scena.org/columns/lebrecht/031210-NL-Berlioz.html |date=10 May 2011 }}, ''The Lebrecht Weekly (La Scena Musicale)'', 10 December 2003. Retrieved 31 March 2008</ref> Both in concert and the recording studio, Beecham's choices of French music were characteristically eclectic.<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 196</ref> He avoided Ravel but regularly programmed Debussy. [[Gabriel Fauré|Fauré]] did not feature often, although his orchestral ''[[Pavane (Fauré)|Pavane]]'' was an exception; Beecham's final recording sessions in 1959 included the ''Pavane'' and the ''[[Dolly (Fauré)|Dolly Suite]]''.<ref>Procter-Gregg, pp. 37–38</ref> Bizet was among Beecham's favourites, and other French composers favoured by him included [[Gustave Charpentier]], [[Léo Delibes|Delibes]], [[Henri Duparc (composer)|Duparc]], Grétry, Lalo, [[Jean-Baptiste Lully|Lully]], Offenbach, Saint-Saëns and [[Ambroise Thomas]].<ref>Procter-Gregg, pp. 196–203</ref> Many of Beecham's later recordings of French music were made in Paris with the [[Orchestre National de France|Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française]]. "''C'est un dieu''", their concertmaster said of Beecham in 1957.<ref>Jenkins (2000), p. 3</ref><ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 39</ref>

Of the more than two dozen operas in the [[Verdi]] canon, Beecham conducted eight during his long career: ''[[Il trovatore]]'', ''[[La traviata]]'', ''[[Aida]]'', ''[[Don Carlos]]'', ''[[Rigoletto]]'', ''[[Un ballo in maschera]]'', ''Otello'' and ''[[Falstaff (opera)|Falstaff]]''.<ref name=pg203/> As early as 1904, Beecham met [[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]] through the librettist [[Luigi Illica]], who had written the libretto for Beecham's youthful attempt at composing an Italian opera.<ref>Lucas, pp. 22–23 and 24–26. Jefferson (pp. 204–205) incorrectly gives the librettist's name as "Giuseppe Illica".</ref> At the time of their meeting, Puccini and Illica were revising ''[[Madama Butterfly]]'' after its disastrous première. Beecham rarely conducted that work, but he conducted ''[[Tosca]]'', ''[[Turandot]]'' and ''La bohème''.<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 202</ref> His 1956 recording of ''La bohème'', with [[Victoria de los Ángeles]] and [[Jussi Björling]], has seldom been out of the catalogues since its release<ref>Jefferson, p. 200</ref> and received more votes than any other operatic set in a 1967 symposium of prominent critics.<ref>March, pp. 62–63</ref>

===Delius, Sibelius and "Lollipops"===
[[File:Fritz Delius (1907 bw).jpg|right|thumb|upright|alt=profile portrait of a slim middle-aged man, slightly balding, clean shaven|Delius in 1907]]
Except for Delius, Beecham was generally antipathetic to, or at best lukewarm about, the music of his native land and its leading composers.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 230–233</ref> Beecham's championship of Delius, however, promoted the composer from relative obscurity.<ref>Reid, pp. 56–61</ref> Delius's [[amanuensis]], [[Eric Fenby]], referred to Beecham as "excelling all others in the music of Delius ... [[Charles Groves|Groves]] and Sargent may have matched him in the great choruses of ''[[A Mass of Life]]'', but in all else Beecham was matchless, especially with the orchestra."<ref>Procter-Gregg, pp. 56–57</ref> In an all-Delius concert in June 1911 Beecham conducted the premiere of ''[[Songs of Sunset]]''. He put on Delius Festivals in 1929 and 1946<ref>Lucas, pp. 187–189 and 316–18</ref> and presented his concert works throughout his career.<ref>Procter-Gregg, pp. 56–59.</ref> He conducted the British premieres of the operas ''[[A Village Romeo and Juliet]]'' in 1910 and ''[[Koanga]]'' in 1935, and the world premiere of ''Irmelin'' in 1953.<ref>Lucas, pp. 60, 223, and 329</ref> However, he was not an uncritical Delian: he never conducted the [[Requiem (Delius)|''Requiem'']], and he detailed his criticisms of it in his book on Delius.{{refn|Beecham thought Delius's invention was not of the same level in the ''Requiem'' as in earlier large scale compositions, and that a non-Christian requiem was a miscalculation, particularly at the height of the First World War.<ref>Montgomery and Threlfall, p. 135</ref>|group= n}}

Another major 20th-century composer who engaged Beecham's sympathies was Sibelius, who recognised him as a fine conductor of his music (although Sibelius tended to be lavish with praise of anybody who conducted his music).<ref>Osborne, p. 387</ref> In a live recording of a December 1954 concert performance of Sibelius's [[Symphony No. 2 (Sibelius)|Second Symphony]] with the [[BBC Symphony Orchestra]] in the Festival Hall, Beecham can be heard uttering encouraging shouts at the orchestra at climactic moments.<ref>Originally issued on LP as HMV ALP 1947 in 1962 and subsequently reissued on compact disc as BBC Legends BBCL 415–4 in 2005</ref>

Beecham was dismissive of some of the established classics, saying for example, "I would give the whole of Bach's ''Brandenburg Concertos'' for [[Jules Massenet|Massenet]]'s ''[[Manon]]'', and would think I had vastly profited by the exchange".<ref>Cardus, p. 29</ref> He was, by contrast, famous for presenting slight pieces as encores, which he called "lollipops". Some of the best-known were Berlioz's ''Danse des sylphes''; [[Emmanuel Chabrier|Chabrier]]'s ''[[Joyeuse Marche]]'' and [[Charles Gounod|Gounod]]'s ''Le Sommeil de Juliette''.<ref>Jenkins (1991) pp. 4 and 12</ref>

==Recordings==
{{Main|Thomas Beecham selected discography}}
The composer [[Richard Arnell]] wrote that Beecham preferred making records to giving concerts: "He told me that audiences got in the way of music-making&nbsp;– he was apt to catch someone's eye in the front row."<ref>Arnell, Richard. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/944245 "Sir Thomas Beecham: Some Personal Memories"], ''Tempo'', Summer 1961, pp. 2–3 and 17. Retrieved 15 March 2011 {{subscription}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190424235721/https://www.jstor.org/stable/944245 |date=24 April 2019 }}</ref> The conductor and critic Trevor Harvey wrote in ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|The Gramophone]]'', however, that studio recordings could never recapture the thrill of Beecham performing live in the concert hall.{{refn|Harvey, reviewing the live 1956 taping of Sibelius's Second Symphony released after Beecham's death, wrote, "It is in one way a sad record, for it reminds one all too vividly of those Beecham occasions which can never happen again and which nobody else seems to be able to provide with so electrifying an atmosphere. … [T]here are those half-strangled yelps that Beecham emitted at moments of stress and climax, which one took to mean 'play, you so-and-so's, play!'&nbsp;– and play the BBC Symphony Orchestra does, like blazes."<ref>Harvey, Trevor. "Sibelius, Symphony No. 2 in D major", ''Gramophone'', November 1962, p. 38</ref>|group= n}}

[[File:Thomas Beecham 1919 cartoon.jpg|thumb|left|alt=caricature of a middle-aged man in evening clothes and a youngish woman dressed as Britannia|upright|1919 cartoon of Beecham, with [[Maud Cunard|Lady Cunard]] as Britannia]]
Beecham began making recordings in 1910, when the acoustical process obliged orchestras to use only principal instruments, placed as close to the recording horn as possible. His first recordings, for [[His Master's Voice (British record label)|HMV]], were of excerpts from [[Jacques Offenbach|Offenbach]]'s ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' and [[Johann Strauss II|Johann Strauss]]'s ''Die Fledermaus''. In 1915, Beecham began recording for the [[Columbia Graphophone Company]]. Electrical recording technology (introduced in 1925–26) made it possible to record a full orchestra with much greater frequency range, and Beecham quickly embraced the new medium. Longer scores had to be broken into four-minute segments to fit on 12-inch 78-rpm discs, but Beecham was not averse to recording piecemeal&nbsp;– his well-known 1932 disc of Chabrier's ''[[España (Chabrier)|España]]'' was recorded in two sessions three weeks apart.<ref>Jenkins (1992), p. 3</ref> Beecham recorded many of his favourite works several times, taking advantage of improved technology over the decades.<ref>Procter-Gregg, pp. 196–199</ref>

From 1926 to 1932, Beecham made more than 70 discs, including an English version of Gounod's ''Faust'' and the first of three recordings of Handel's ''[[Messiah (Handel)|Messiah]]''.<ref name=grammessiah/> He began recording with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1933, making more than 150 discs for Columbia, including music by Mozart, Rossini, Berlioz, Wagner, Handel, Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy and Delius.<ref name=jefferson89/> Among the most prominent of his pre-war recordings was the first complete recording of Mozart's ''The Magic Flute'' with the [[Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra]], made for HMV and supervised by Walter Legge in Berlin in 1937–38, a set described by [[Alan Blyth]] in ''Gramophone'' magazine in 2006 as having "a legendary status".<ref>Blyth, Alan. "Masonic Magic", ''Gramophone'', January 2006, p. 28</ref> In 1936, during his German tour with the LPO, Beecham conducted the world's first orchestral recording on magnetic tape, made at [[Ludwigshafen]], the home of [[BASF]], the company that developed the process.<ref>Borwick, John. "Commentary: 50 Years of (BASF) Tape", ''Gramophone'', April 1984, p. 91. Retrieved 13 March 2011</ref>

During his stay in the US and afterwards, Beecham recorded for American [[Columbia Records]] and [[RCA Victor]]. His RCA recordings include major works that he did not subsequently re-record for the gramophone, including [[Symphony No. 4 (Beethoven)|Beethoven's Fourth]], [[Symphony No. 6 (Sibelius)|Sibelius's Sixth]] and Mendelssohn's [[Symphony No. 5 (Mendelssohn)|Reformation]] Symphonies.<ref name=jenkins1>Jenkins, Lyndon. "The Beecham Archives", ''Gramophone'', September 1987, p. 11</ref> Some of his RCA recordings were issued only in the US, including Mozart's [[Symphony No. 27 (Mozart)|Symphony No. 27]], K199, the overtures to Smetana's ''The Bartered Bride'' and Mozart's ''[[La clemenza di Tito]]'', the Sinfonia from Bach's ''[[Christmas Oratorio]]'',<ref name=jenkins1/> a 1947–48 complete recording of Gounod's ''Faust'', and an RPO studio version of Sibelius's Second Symphony.<ref name=jenkins1/> Beecham's RCA records that were released on both sides of the Atlantic were his celebrated 1956 complete recording of Puccini's ''La bohème''<ref>"Sir Thomas Beecham Selected Discography", ''Gramophone'', May 2011, p. 11</ref> and an extravagantly rescored set of Handel's ''Messiah''.<ref>Culshaw, p. 212</ref> The former remains a top recommendation among reviewers,<ref>See, for instance, [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classical/cdreview/composer/giacomo-puccini/ "CD Review: Building a Library Recommendations"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110127201940/http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classical/cdreview/composer/giacomo-puccini/ |date=27 January 2011 }}, BBC, 14 June 2008. Retrieved 13 March 2011; and "Sir Thomas Beecham Selected Discography", ''Gramophone'', May 2001, p. 11</ref> and the latter was described by ''Gramophone'' as "an irresistible outrage … huge fun".<ref name=grammessiah>Blyth, Alan. "Music from Heaven", ''Gramophone'', December 2003, p. 52</ref>

For the Columbia label, Beecham recorded his last, or only, versions of many works by Delius, including ''A Mass of Life'', ''Appalachia'', ''North Country Sketches'', ''An Arabesque'', ''Paris'' and ''[[Eventyr (Once Upon a Time)|Eventyr]]''.<ref name=jenkins1/> Other Columbia recordings from the early 1950s include Beethoven's ''[[Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven)|Eroica]]'', ''[[Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)|Pastoral]]'' and [[Symphony No. 8 (Beethoven)|Eighth]] symphonies, Mendelssohn's ''[[Symphony No. 4 (Mendelssohn)|Italian]]'' symphony, and the Brahms [[Violin Concerto (Brahms)|Violin Concerto]] with [[Isaac Stern]].<ref name=jenkins1/>

From his return to England at the end of the Second World War until his final recordings in 1959, Beecham continued his early association with HMV and British Columbia, who had merged to form EMI. From 1955 his EMI recordings made in London were recorded in stereo. He also recorded in Paris, with his own RPO and with the [[Orchestre National de France|Orchestra National de la Radiodiffusion Française]], though the Paris recordings were in mono until 1958.<ref name=gramhaydn>Wigmore, Richard. "Haydn Symphonies", ''Gramophone'', September 1993, p. 53</ref> For EMI, Beecham recorded two complete operas in stereo, ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail'' and ''Carmen''.<ref>Vaughan, Denis. "Beecham in the Recording Studio: a centenary tribute to Sir Thomas Beecham", ''Gramophone'', April 1979, p. 1</ref> His last recordings were made in Paris in December 1959.<ref name=salter/> Beecham's EMI recordings have been continually reissued on LP and CD. In 2011, to mark the 50th anniversary of Beecham's death, EMI released 34 CDs of his recordings of music from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, including works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, Richard Strauss and Delius, and many of the French "lollipops" with which he was associated.<ref>EMI (2011), "Sir Thomas Beecham Edition", catalogue numbers [http://www.emiclassics.co.uk/release.php?id=5099990991523 9099462] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929202448/http://www.emiclassics.co.uk/release.php?id=5099990991523 |date=29 September 2011 }}, [http://www.emiclassics.co.uk/release.php?id=5099990996429 9099642] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623181006/http://emiclassics.co.uk/release.php?id=5099990996429 |date=23 June 2011 }}, [http://www.emiclassics.co.uk/release.php?id=5099991861122 9186112] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623150208/http://emiclassics.co.uk/release.php?id=5099991861122 |date=23 June 2011 }} and [http://www.emiclassics.co.uk/release.php?id=5099990993220 9099322]</ref>

==Relations with others==
Beecham's relations with fellow British conductors were not always cordial. [[Sir Henry Wood]] regarded him as an upstart and was envious of his success;<ref>Jacobs, pp. 330–332</ref> the scrupulous [[Sir Adrian Boult]] found him "repulsive" as a man and a musician;<ref>Kennedy (1989), p. 154</ref> and [[Sir John Barbirolli]] mistrusted him.<ref>Jefferson, p. 183</ref> [[Sir Malcolm Sargent]] worked with him in founding the London Philharmonic and was a friend and ally, but he was the subject of unkind, though witty, digs from Beecham who, for example, described the image-conscious [[Herbert von Karajan]] as "a kind of musical Malcolm Sargent".<ref>Atkins, p. 61</ref> Beecham's relations with foreign conductors were often excellent. He did not get on well with [[Arturo Toscanini]],<ref>Jefferson, p. 105</ref> but he liked and encouraged [[Wilhelm Furtwängler]],<ref>Jefferson, p. 179</ref> admired [[Pierre Monteux]],<ref>Canarina, p. 291</ref> fostered [[Rudolf Kempe]] as his successor with the RPO, and was admired by [[Fritz Reiner]],<ref>Reid, p. 192</ref> [[Otto Klemperer]]<ref>Klemperer, p.193</ref> and Karajan.<ref>Osborne, p. 248</ref>

Despite his lordly drawl, Beecham remained a Lancastrian at heart. "In ''my'' county, where ''I'' come from, we're all a bit vulgar, you know, but there is a certain heartiness&nbsp;– a sort of bonhomie about our vulgarity&nbsp;– which tides you over a lot of rough spots in the path. But in ''Yorkshire'', in a spot of bother, they're so damn-set-in-their-ways that there's no doing anything with them!"<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 152</ref>

Beecham has been much quoted. In 1929, the editor of a music journal wrote, "The stories gathered around Sir Thomas Beecham are innumerable. Wherever musicians come together, he is likely to be one of the topics of conversation. Everyone telling a Beecham story tries to imitate his manner and his tone of voice."<ref>Grew, Sydney. "British Conductors", ''British Musician and Musical News'', June 1929, p. 154</ref> A book, ''Beecham Stories'', was published in 1978 consisting entirely of his ''bons mots'' and anecdotes about him.<ref>Atkins, ''passim''</ref> Some are variously attributed to Beecham or one or more other people, including [[Arnold Bax]] and [[Winston Churchill]]; [[Neville Cardus]] admitted to inventing some himself.<ref>Cardus, p. 26</ref>{{refn|A typical, and well known, Beecham story&nbsp;– which, like many Beecham stories, is much repeated but not reliably verified&nbsp;– is of his meeting a distinguished woman whose face was familiar but whose name he could not remember. After some preliminaries about the weather, and desperately racking his brain, he asked after her family:
:"My brother has been rather ill lately."
:"Ah, yes, your brother. I'm sorry to hear that. And, er, what is your brother doing at the moment?"
:"Well ... he's still King", replied [[Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom|Princess Victoria]].<ref>One of the many variants of this story is printed in Atkins, p. 89</ref>|group= n}} Among the Beecham lines that are reliably attributed are, "A musicologist is a man who can read music but can't hear it";<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 154; and Cardus, p. 75</ref> his maxim, "There are only two things requisite so far as the public is concerned for a good performance: that is for the orchestra to begin together and end together; in between it doesn't matter much";<ref>"Jolts and Jars: some wit and wisdom by Sir Thomas Beecham", ''[[The Listener (magazine)|The Listener]]'', 3 October 1974; also heard on the EMI "Beecham in Rehearsal" disc, EMI CDM 7 64465 2 (1992)</ref> and his remark at his 70th birthday celebrations after telegrams were read out from Strauss, Stravinsky and Sibelius: "Nothing from Mozart?"<ref>Cardus, p. 125; and Atkins, p. 48</ref>

He was completely indifferent to mundane tasks such as correspondence, and was less than responsible with the property of others.  On one occasion, two thousand unopened letters were discovered among his papers. [[Havergal Brian]] sent him three scores with a view to having them performed.  One of them, the ''Second English Suite'', was never returned and is now considered lost.<ref>Charles Reid, ''Thomas Beecham: An Independent Biography'', 1961, p. 93</ref><ref>[http://klassichaus.us/documents/HavergalBrianSocietyNL228.pdf The Havergal Brian Society Newsletter, No. 228, July–August 2013, p. 3, footnote 28]. Retrieved 23 May 2016</ref>

==Honours and commemorations==
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, [[Albert François Lebrun|Albert Lebrun]], invested him with the [[Legion of Honour|Légion d'honneur]].<ref>Russell, p. 52</ref> In 1955, Beecham was presented with the [[Order of the White Rose of Finland]].<ref>Lucas, p. 330</ref> He was a Commendatore of the Order of the Crown of Italy and was made a [[Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour]] in the 1957 [[Queen's Birthday Honours]].<ref name=jefferson101/><ref>"Sir T. Beecham made C.H.", ''The Times'', 13 June 1957, p. 10</ref> He was an honorary [[Doctor of Music]] of the universities of [[University of Oxford|Oxford]], [[University of London|London]], [[University of Manchester|Manchester]] and [[Université de Montréal|Montreal]].<ref name=jefferson101>Jefferson, p. 101</ref>

''Beecham'', by [[Caryl Brahms]] and [[Ned Sherrin]], is a play celebrating the conductor and drawing on a large number of Beecham stories for its material. Its first production, in 1979, starred [[Timothy West]] in the title role. It was later adapted for television, starring West, with members of the Hallé Orchestra taking part in the action and playing pieces associated with Beecham.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080503162316/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/370535 ''Timothy West as Beecham''], BBC TV film, 1979, British Film Institute Film and TV database. Retrieved 26 July 2007</ref>

In 1980 the [[Royal Mail]] put Beecham's image on the 13½p postage stamp in a series portraying British conductors; the other three in the series depicted Wood, Sargent and Barbirolli.<ref>"Conductors on Stamps", ''The Times'', 17 July 1980, p. 18</ref> The Sir Thomas Beecham Society preserves Beecham's legacy through its website and release of historic recordings.<ref>[http://reocities.com/paris/1947/society.html "Membership information"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120405190239/http://reocities.com/paris/1947/society.html |date=5 April 2012 }}, Sir Thomas Beecham Society. Retrieved 30 March 2011</ref>

In 2012, Beecham was voted into the inaugural ''Gramophone'' magazine "Hall of Fame".<ref>[http://www.gramophone.co.uk/HallofFame/ArtistPage/Beecham "Sir Thomas Beecham"] ''Gramophone''. Retrieved 10 April 2012</ref>

==Books by Beecham==
Beecham's published books were:
* {{cite book | year=1956 | title= John Fletcher ''(The [[Romanes Lecture]] for 1956)''| location= Oxford | publisher=Clarendon Press | oclc= 315928398}}
* {{cite book | year= 1959| title=A Mingled Chime&nbsp;– Leaves from an Autobiography | location= London | publisher=Hutchinson | oclc= 3672200}}
* {{cite book |  year= 1959| title= Frederick Delius |  url= https://archive.org/details/frederickdelius00beec|  url-access= registration| location= London | publisher=Hutchinson | oclc=730041374 }}
The last of these was reissued in 1975 by Severn House, London, with an introduction by [[Felix Aprahamian]] and a discography by Malcolm Walker, {{ISBN|0-7278-0073-6}}.

==See also==
* [[Thomas Beecham selected discography]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=n|colwidth=25em}}

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=25em}}

==Sources==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book | last=Aldous| first=Richard| title=Tunes of Glory: The Life of Malcolm Sargent | location=London |publisher=Hutchinson |year=2001| isbn=0-09-180131-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Atkins |first=Harold |author2=Archie Newman |title=Beecham Stories | location=London | publisher=Robson Books| year=1978| isbn=0-86051-044-1}}
* {{cite book | last=Beecham| first=Thomas| title=A Mingled Chime| location=London| publisher=Hutchinson | year=1959| orig-year=1943|oclc=470511334}}
* {{cite book | last=Beecham| first=Thomas| title=''Notes to'' Messiah|location=London| publisher=RCA| year=1992}} RCA CD 09026-61266-2
* {{cite book |last=Canarina |first=John |title=Pierre Monteux, Maître |location=Pompton Plains and Cambridge |publisher=Amadeus Press |year=2003 |isbn=1-57467-082-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/pierremonteuxmai00cana }}
* {{cite book | last=Cardus | first=Neville| title=Sir Thomas Beecham| location=London | publisher=Collins | year=1961|oclc=1290533}}
* {{cite book | last=Culshaw | first=John| title=Putting the Record Straight | location=London | publisher=Secker & Warburg | year=1981 | isbn=0-436-11802-5}}
* {{cite book | last=Geissmar | first=Berta| title=The Baton and the Jackboot | location=London | publisher=Hamish Hamilton | year=1944}}
* {{cite book | last=Golding | first=Robin |title=''Notes to'' Love in Bath |location=London|publisher=EMI Records|year= 1962}} EMI CD CDM 7-63374-2
* {{cite book| last=Haltrecht| first=Montague| title=The Quiet Showman: Sir David Webster and the Royal Opera House| location=London| publisher=Collins| year=1975| isbn=0-00-211163-2| url=https://archive.org/details/quietshowmansird00halt}}
* {{cite book| editor-last=Holden| editor-first=Amanda| title=The Penguin Opera Guide| location=London| publisher=Penguin| year=1997| isbn=0-14-051385-X| url=https://archive.org/details/operaguidepengui00nich}}
* {{cite book | last=Jacobs | first=Arthur | title=Henry J Wood | location=London | publisher=Methuen | year=1994 | isbn=0-413-69340-6}}
* {{cite book | last=Jefferson | first=Alan | title=Sir Thomas Beecham: A Centenary Tribute | location=London | publisher=Macdonald and Jane's | year=1979| isbn=0-354-04205-X}}
* {{cite book | last=Jenkins | first=Lyndon |title=''Notes to ''Beecham Conducts Bizet|location=London|publisher=EMI Records|year= 1988}} EMI CD 5-67231-2
* {{cite book | last=Jenkins | first=Lyndon |title=''Notes to'' French Favourites |location=London|publisher=EMI Records|year= 1992}} EMI CD CDM 7 63401 2
* {{cite book | last=Jenkins | first=Lyndon |title=''Notes to'' Lollipops|location=London|publisher=EMI Records|year= 1991}} EMI CD CDM 7-63412-2
* {{cite book | last=Jenkins | first=Lyndon |title=''Notes to'' Mozart and Beethoven Symphonies |location=London|publisher=EMI Records|year= 2000}} EMI CD 5-67231-2
* {{cite book | last=Kennedy | first=Michael |title=Adrian Boult | location=London | publisher=Papermac | year=1989 | isbn=0-333-48752-4}}
* {{cite book | last=Kennedy | first=Michael |title=Barbirolli, Conductor Laureate: The Authorised Biography | location=London | publisher=MacGibbon and Key| year=1971 | isbn=0-261-63336-8}}
* {{cite book | last=Klemperer | first=Otto |title=Klemperer on Music: Shavings from a Musician's Workbench | location=London |publisher=Toccata Press | year=1986 |isbn=0-907689-13-2}}
* {{cite book | last=Lucas| first=John|title=Thomas Beecham: An Obsession with Music | location=Woodbridge|publisher=Boydell Press | year=2008|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U1hbfbg6zUMC |isbn=978-1-84383-402-1}}
* {{cite book | editor-last=March | editor-first=Ivan | title=The Great Records | location=Blackpool | publisher=Long Playing Record Library | year=1967|oclc=555041974}}
* {{cite book | last= Melville-Mason | first=Graham |title=''Notes to'' Sir Thomas Beecham conducts Handel and Goldmark |location=London |publisher=Sony Records|year= 2002}} Sony CD SMK87780
* {{cite book | last=Melville-Mason| first=Graham |title=''Notes to ''Sir Thomas Beecham conducts Wagner |location=London |publisher=Sony Records|year=2002}} Sony CD SMK89889
* {{cite book|last=Montgomery |first=Robert |author2=Robert Threlfall|year=2007 |title= Music and Copyright: the case of Delius and his publishers|location= Aldershot|publisher=Ashgate |isbn=0-7546-5846-5 }}
* {{cite book | last=Morrison| first=Richard|title=Orchestra – The LSO: A Century of Triumph and Turbulence| location=London |publisher=Faber and Faber| year=2004|isbn=0-571-21584-X}}
* {{cite book | last=Osborne | first=Richard | title=Herbert von Karajan: A Life in Music | location=London | publisher=Chatto and Windus | year=1998 | isbn=1-85619-763-8}}
* {{cite book | editor-last=Procter-Gregg | editor-first=Humphrey | title=Beecham Remembered | location=London | publisher=Duckworth | year=1976 | isbn=0-7156-1117-8}}
* {{cite book | last=Reid | first=Charles | title=Thomas Beecham: An Independent Biography | location=London | publisher=Victor Gollancz | year=1961|oclc=500565141}}
* {{cite book | last=Russell| first=Thomas| title=Philharmonic Decade| location=London | publisher=Hutchinson | year=1945 |oclc=504109856}}
* {{cite book | last=Salter| first=Lionel|title=''Notes to'' Franck and Lalo Symphonies |location=London|publisher=EMI Records |year=1991}} EMI CD CDM-7-63396-2
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links|wikt=no|b=no|q=Thomas Beecham|s=no|commons=Category:Thomas Beecham|n=no|v=no|species=no}}
* {{AllMusic|class=artist|id=q8214}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/19960512201900/http://www.geocities.com/Paris/1947/beecham.html The Sir Thomas Beecham Society]
* [http://www.musicweb-international.com/hooey/beecham.htm Beecham Opera Comique Tour 1910–1911]
* {{NPG name}}
* {{PM20|FID=pe/001325}}

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