Sir Thomas Beecham [antikvár]

IntroductionSir Thomas Beecham, conductor, founder of orchestras, concert and opera impresario, died in 1961. Those who knew him are a dwindling band. Even those who saw him conduct must now be mostly in their fifties, or older. All the stories about him, the witty or outrageous things he is supposed to have said and done, are beginning to fade. What remains is infinitely more important.He was the last great musical amateur, using that word in its traditional sense of somebody with the money and the opportunity to indulge his love of music. He went through a fortune doing it. He was, by the same token, the last great outsider. No one today, in any sphere of activity, could go their own way as he did, creating so much that was entirely in his own image. Toscanini called him a pagliaccio, a clown. The two men were poles apart. Toscanini, risen from the orchestral ranks, was the dedicated martinet, the man who said of orchestras, 'they won't play well for you unless they hate you'. No wonder he could not understand the flamboyant Beecham, the maverick entrepreneur as much as the unconventional and sometimes quixotic musician. Indeed, the world has grown too small, or too closely-knit, or perhaps too tame, for people of Beecham's stamp.For sixty years this supremely gifted amateur, with the intellect, energy and flair of twenty other men, was at the centre of British musical life. Looking beyond the British Isles, he drew into his orbit many of his greatest contemporaries, in music and the allied arts. He resurrected Mozart and blew the dust off Handel. He was among the first to champion Berlioz. He promoted Richard Strauss and Stravinsky when they were still shockingly modern. He cherished the music of another outsider, Delius. He was a pioneer of recording and of broadcasting. He travelled the world. His career probably impinged upon more aspects of this century's music - not to mention its social history and its politics - than that of any other single person.Thomas Beecham was born, it could be said, with the proverbial