Sir Thomas Beecham's Biography

As the son of a wealthy businessman's family he was educated in Oxford; musically he taught himself everything. From 1902 to 1904 he led a small operatic ensemble. In 1906 he established the New Symphony Orchestra in London. In 1910, financially backed by his family, he took over the creative and business management of Covent Garden. He was the first in England to perform «The Mastersingers of Nuremberg» by Wagner, «Elektra» and «Salome» by Strauss and thus enriched the musical life of the English capital. He invited Fyodor Shalyapin, the Ballets Russes, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Erich Kleiber, in other words everyone of repute, to give guest performances in London. During the First World War he set up the Beecham Opera Company. However, expenditure increased constantly so in 1920 he had to give up his own ensemble again. In 1932 he returned to Covent Garden and in the same year he established the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which also played at Covent Garden. During the Second World War he embarked on an extended tour of Australia, Canada and the United States, where he conducted in Seattle and at the Metropolitan (1942-44). After his return to England he was no longer able to resume his work at Covent Garden; his former orchestra, the London Philharmonic, chose self-administration and rejected Beecham as its sole manager. As a result he formed the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1947), which he managed until the end of his days. Sir Thomas Beecham was always an advocate of English music, particularly Frederick Delius, whose main works he was the first to play. He fought for the works of Jean Sibelius in England and defended those of Richard Strauss, to whom he felt greatly attached. In the field of old music he had an affection for the oratorios of Georg Friedrich Händel, which he performed in highly personal and surprising arrangements. He was also attracted by French music and it is to him that we owe gramophone recordings of the major symphonies of the 19th century and a trend-setting «Carmen» by Bizet. His humour is legendary and his style of conducting, which tended to be based rather on instinct than on intellect, may be termed characteristic of a generation of musicians, to whom enthusiasm was more important than unrelenting strictness.

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