Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Thomas Beecham
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
{{Short description|British conductor and impresario (1879–1961)}} {{For|Beecham's grandfather|Thomas Beecham (chemist)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}} {{Use British English|date=May 2019}} {{bots|deny=Citation bot}} <!-- please do not add an infobox without consensus on the talk page, per [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Classical music#Biographical infoboxes]]--> [[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]].
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)