Sir Thomas Beecham Quotes

A musicologist is a man who can read music but can't hear it.

Sir Thomas Beecham

Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory.

Sir Thomas Beecham

Try everything once except folk dancing and incest.

Sir Thomas Beecham

If I cannot sing a work, I cannot conduct it.

Sir Thomas Beecham

The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought.

Sir Thomas Beecham

Here are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesnt give a damn what goes on in between.

Sir Thomas Beecham

The grand tune is the only thing in music that the great public really understands.

Sir Thomas Beecham

I found it as alluring as a wayward woman and determined to tame it.

Sir Thomas Beecham

What can you do with it? It's like a lot of yaks jumping about.

Sir Thomas Beecham

A musicologist is a man who can read music but can't hear it.

Sir Thomas Beecham

Too much counterpoint; what is worse, Protestant counterpoint.

Sir Thomas Beecham

The musical equivalent of the towers of St Pancras Station.

Sir Thomas Beecham

Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory.

Sir Thomas Beecham

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"

Sir Thomas Beecham

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!".

Sir Thomas Beecham