Thomas Beecham (1879–1961)

This is a good example of a book which "does exactly what it says on the tin". It's simply a collection of stories, mostly extended quotations, about the eponymous conductor. One may suspect that some are apocryphal, and if you have any strong views about classical music in general, or opera in particular, you'll certainly find something here to either amuse or annoy you (sometimes both at once!) Sadly one of my favourite quotes is missing (on a fellow conductor: "Adrian Boult came to see me show more ... reeking of Horlicks!") but this is definitely worth occasional re-reading. show less

Among my distinguished contemporaries there is hardly one who cannot trace back the origin of his talent to an unbelievably early age; and although I knew well that such phenomenal accomplishment had never been mine, I must surely have shown some bent for, or anyway taken some interest in the art which was to be the main preoccupation of my life. But the trouble about gathering knowledge from other persons is the comparative unreliability of their testimony. This anyone will endorse who has show more observed the distracted efforts of half a dozen different witnesses in a law action to describe the same event; and certainly no magistrate of experience would dissent from the opinion of Pilate in the first, and Pirandello in the twentieth century, that final truth is beyond human discovery.

So begins this wonderful autobiography of Thomas Beecham, one of the greatest conductors of the last century and in its pages we meet many talented names and gain a vivid impression of the first half of the twentieth century. show less

The title says it all. Amusing.

A cricketer is shown on the bag page - to show somehow that 'Beecham's powders are a wonderful pick-me-up'.