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!
==Biography== ===Early years=== [[File:BeechamsBuilding.jpg|thumb|right|alt=exterior of nineteenth century industrial building|The Beecham factory in St Helens]] Beecham was born in [[St Helens, Merseyside|St Helens]], Lancashire (now Merseyside), in a house adjoining the [[Beecham's Pills]] laxative factory founded by his grandfather, [[Thomas Beecham (chemist)|Thomas Beecham]].<ref name=reid19>Reid, p. 19</ref> His parents were [[Sir Joseph Beecham, 1st Baronet|Joseph Beecham]], the elder son of Thomas, and Josephine, ''née'' Burnett.<ref name=reid19/> In 1885, with the family firm flourishing financially, Joseph Beecham moved his family to a large house in Ewanville, [[Huyton]], near [[Liverpool]]. Their former home was demolished to make room for an extension to the pill factory.<ref>Lucas, p. 6</ref> Beecham was educated at [[Rossall School]] between 1892 and 1897, after which he hoped to attend a music conservatoire in Germany, but his father forbade it, and instead Beecham went to [[Wadham College, Oxford]] to read [[Classics]].<ref>Reid, pp. 25–27</ref> He did not find university life to his taste and successfully sought his father's permission to leave Oxford in 1898.<ref name=reid27>Reid, p. 27</ref> He studied as a pianist but, despite his excellent natural talent and fine technique, he had difficulty because of his small hands, and any career as a soloist was ruled out by a wrist injury in 1904. <ref name=dnb>Jefferson, Alan. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30670 "Beecham, Sir Thomas, second baronet (1879–1961)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 24 May 2016 {{ODNBsub}}</ref><ref>Lucas, p. 144</ref> He studied composition with [[Frederic Austin]] in Liverpool, [[Charles Wood (composer)|Charles Wood]] in London, and [[Moritz Moszkowski]] in Paris.{{#tag:ref|Beecham had first approached [[Charles Villiers Stanford]], but Stanford did not take private pupils.<ref name=lucas18>Lucas, pp. 12 and 18</ref> [[André Messager]] recommended Beecham to study with Moszkowski.<ref>Beecham (1959), p. 52</ref>|group= n}} As a conductor, he was self-taught.<ref name=grove>Crichton, Ronald, and John Lucas. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/02507 "Beecham, Sir Thomas"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford Music Online. Retrieved 13 March 2011 {{subscription}}</ref> ===First orchestras=== Beecham first conducted in public in St. Helens in October 1899, with an ''ad hoc'' ensemble comprising local musicians and players from the [[Royal Liverpool Philharmonic|Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra]] and [[the Hallé]] in Manchester.<ref name=reid27/> A month later, he stood in at short notice for the celebrated conductor [[Hans Richter (conductor)|Hans Richter]] at a concert by the Hallé to mark Joseph Beecham's inauguration as mayor of St Helens.<ref name=reid27/> Soon afterwards, Joseph Beecham secretly committed his wife to a mental hospital.{{refn|Lucas concludes that Josephine Beecham was suffering from [[post-natal depression]]. As Joseph Beecham was found to be keeping a mistress, his wife was able to obtain a judicial separation, which removed Joseph's right to block her release from the hospital.<ref>Lucas, p. 17</ref>|group= n}} Thomas and his elder sister Emily helped to secure their mother's release and to force their father to pay annual alimony of £4,500.<ref>Reid, pp. 31–34</ref> For this, Joseph disinherited them. Beecham was estranged from his father for ten years.<ref name=reid62/> Beecham's professional début as a conductor was in 1902 at the Shakespeare Theatre, [[Clapham]], with [[Michael William Balfe|Balfe]]'s ''[[The Bohemian Girl]]'', for the Imperial Grand Opera Company.<ref name=lucas20>Lucas, p. 20</ref> He was engaged as assistant conductor for a tour and was allotted four other operas, including ''[[Carmen]]'' and ''[[Pagliacci]]''.<ref name=lucas20/> A Beecham biographer calls the company "grandly named but decidedly ramshackle",<ref name=lucas20/> though Beecham's Carmen was [[Zélie de Lussan]], a leading exponent of the title role.<ref>Lucas, p. 22</ref> Beecham was also composing music in these early years, but he was not satisfied with his own efforts and instead concentrated on conducting.<ref>Beecham (1959), p. 74</ref>{{refn|Beecham told an interviewer in 1910 that he spent a year composing, and produced three operas – two in English and one in Italian – and "once spent three weeks in trying to compose the first movement of a sonata", which led him to conclude that composition was not his forte.<ref>"Mr. Thomas Beecham", ''[[The Musical Times]]'', October 1910, p. 630</ref>|group= n}} [[Image:Thomas Beecham (October 1910).jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Youngish man, with neat imperial beard and moustache, seated, supporting head with left hand|Beecham, c. 1910]] [[File:Beecham-byEmu-1910.jpg|thumb|right|upright|alt=caricature of neatly bearded man in formal dress|Caricature of Beecham by "Emu", 1910]] In 1906 Beecham was invited to conduct the [[New Symphony Orchestra (London)|New Symphony Orchestra]], a recently formed ensemble of 46 players, in a series of concerts at the [[Wigmore Hall|Bechstein Hall]] in London.<ref>Lucas, p. 32</ref> Throughout his career, Beecham frequently chose to programme works to suit his own tastes rather than those of the paying public. In his early discussions with his new orchestra, he proposed works by a long list of barely known composers such as [[Étienne Méhul]], [[Nicolas Dalayrac]] and [[Ferdinando Paer]].<ref>Reid, p. 54</ref> During this period, Beecham first encountered the music of [[Frederick Delius]], which he at once loved deeply and with which he became closely associated for the rest of his life.<ref>Jefferson, p. 32</ref> Beecham quickly concluded that to compete with the two existing London orchestras, the [[Queen's Hall]] Orchestra and the recently founded [[London Symphony Orchestra]] (LSO), his forces must be expanded to full symphonic strength and play in larger halls.<ref>Lucas, p. 24</ref> For two years starting in October 1907, Beecham and the enlarged New Symphony Orchestra gave concerts at the Queen's Hall. He paid little attention to the box office: his programmes were described by a biographer as "even more certain to deter the public then than it would be in our own day".<ref name=reid55>Reid, p. 55</ref> The principal pieces of his first concert with the orchestra were [[Vincent d'Indy|d'Indy]]'s symphonic ballad ''La forêt enchantée'', [[Bedřich Smetana|Smetana]]'s symphonic poem ''Šárka'', and [[Édouard Lalo|Lalo]]'s little-known [[Symphony in G minor (Lalo)|Symphony in G minor]].<ref>Reid, pp. 55–56</ref> Beecham retained an affection for the last work: it was among the works he conducted at his final recording sessions more than fifty years later.<ref name=salter>Salter, p. 4; and Procter-Gregg, pp. 37–38</ref> In 1908 Beecham and the New Symphony Orchestra parted company, disagreeing about artistic control and, in particular, the deputy system. Under this system, orchestral players, if offered a better-paid engagement elsewhere, could send a substitute to a rehearsal or a concert.<ref>Russell, p. 10</ref> The treasurer of the [[Royal Philharmonic Society]] described it thus: "''A'', whom you want, signs to play at your concert. He sends ''B'' (whom you don't mind) to the first rehearsal. ''B'', without your knowledge or consent, sends ''C'' to the second rehearsal. Not being able to play at the concert, ''C'' sends ''D'', whom you would have paid five shillings to stay away."<ref>Reid, p. 50</ref>{{refn|The lines are put into Beecham's mouth in the 1980 play ''Beecham'' by [[Caryl Brahms]] and [[Ned Sherrin]].|group= n}} [[Henry Wood]] had already banned the deputy system in the Queen's Hall Orchestra (provoking rebel players to found the London Symphony Orchestra), and Beecham followed suit.<ref name=reid70>Reid, p. 70</ref> The New Symphony Orchestra survived without him and subsequently became the [[Royal Albert Hall]] Orchestra.<ref name=reid70/> In 1909, Beecham founded the Beecham Symphony Orchestra.<ref name=reid71>Reid, p. 71</ref> He did not poach from established symphony orchestras, but instead he recruited from theatre bandrooms, local symphony societies, the [[palm court]]s of hotels, and music colleges.<ref>Reid, pp. 70–71</ref> The result was a youthful team – the average age of his players was 25. They included names that would become celebrated in their fields, such as [[Albert Sammons]], [[Lionel Tertis]], [[Eric Coates]] and [[Eugene Cruft]].<ref name=reid71/> Because he persistently programmed works that did not attract the public, Beecham's musical activities at this time consistently lost money. As a result of his estrangement from his father between 1899 and 1909, his access to the Beecham family fortune was strictly limited. From 1907 he had an annuity of £700 left to him in his grandfather's will, and his mother subsidised some of his loss-making concerts,<ref name=reid62>Reid, p. 62</ref> but it was not until father and son were reconciled in 1909 that Beecham was able to draw on the family fortune to promote opera.<ref>Reid, p. 88</ref> ===1910–1920=== From 1910, subsidised by his father, Beecham realised his ambition to mount opera seasons at [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]] and other houses. In the [[Edwardian era|Edwardian]] opera house, the star singers were regarded as all-important, and conductors were seen as ancillary.<ref name=reid98>Reid, p. 98</ref> Between 1910 and 1939 Beecham did much to change the balance of power.<ref name=reid98/> [[File:Beecham-Strauss-Pitt-Walter.jpg|thumb|left|alt=face shots of four middle aged men, one bearded, one moustached, two clean shaven|Clockwise from top left: Beecham, [[Richard Strauss]], [[Bruno Walter]] and [[Percy Pitt]], all in 1910]] In 1910, Beecham either conducted or was responsible as [[impresario]] for 190 performances at Covent Garden and [[Her Majesty's Theatre|His Majesty's Theatre]]. His assistant conductors were [[Bruno Walter]] and [[Percy Pitt]].<ref>Beecham (1959), p. 88</ref> During the year, he mounted 34 different operas, most of them either new to London or almost unknown there.<ref>Reid, p. 97</ref> Beecham later acknowledged that in his early years the operas he chose to present were too obscure to attract the public.<ref>Reid, p. 108</ref> During his 1910 season at His Majesty's, the rival Grand Opera Syndicate put on a concurrent season of its own at Covent Garden; London's total opera performances for the year amounted to 273 performances, far more than the box-office demand could support.<ref>Reid, p. 96</ref> Of the 34 operas that Beecham staged in 1910, only four made money: [[Richard Strauss]]'s new operas ''[[Elektra (opera)|Elektra]]'' and ''[[Salome (opera)|Salome]],'' receiving their first, and highly publicised, performances in Britain, and ''[[The Tales of Hoffmann]]'' and ''[[Die Fledermaus]]''.<ref>Reid, p. 107</ref>{{refn|Of the other operas of Beecham's 1910 seasons, lesser-known pieces, such as ''[[A Village Romeo and Juliet]]'' (Delius), ''[[Hänsel und Gretel (opera)|Hansel and Gretel]], [[The Wreckers (opera)|The Wreckers]]'' ([[Ethel Smyth]]), ''[[L'enfant prodigue (Debussy)|L'enfant prodigue]]'' and ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Pelléas and Mélisande]]'' ([[Claude Debussy|Debussy]]), ''[[Ivanhoe (opera)|Ivanhoe]]'' ([[Arthur Sullivan|Sullivan]]), ''Shamus O'Brien'' ([[Charles Villiers Stanford|Stanford]]), ''Muguette'' (Edmond de Misa),'' [[Werther]]'' ([[Jules Massenet|Massenet]]), ''[[Feuersnot]]'' (Richard Strauss) and ''A Summer Night'' ([[George Clutsam]]) outnumbered the more popular pieces, such as Wagner's ''[[Der fliegende Holländer|The Flying Dutchman]]'' and ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'', Bizet's ''Carmen,'' Verdi's ''[[Rigoletto]]'' and five [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] works: ''[[Così fan tutte]]'', ''[[The Marriage of Figaro]]'', ''[[Der Schauspieldirektor]]'', ''[[Die Entführung aus dem Serail]]'' and ''[[Don Giovanni]]''.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 111–119</ref>|group= n}} In 1911 and 1912, the Beecham Symphony Orchestra played for [[Sergei Diaghilev]]'s [[Ballets Russes]], both at Covent Garden and at the [[Kroll Opera House|Krolloper]] in Berlin, under the batons of Beecham and [[Pierre Monteux]], Diaghilev's chief conductor. Beecham was much admired for conducting the complicated new score of [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]]'s ''[[Petrushka]]'', at two days' notice and without rehearsal, when Monteux became unavailable.<ref>Canarina, p. 39</ref> While in Berlin, Beecham and his orchestra, in Beecham's words, caused a "mild stir", scoring a triumph: the orchestra was agreed by the Berlin press to be an elite body, one of the best in the world.<ref name=reid123>Reid, p. 123</ref> The principal Berlin musical weekly, ''Die Signale'', asked, "Where does London find such magnificent young instrumentalists?" The violins were credited with rich, noble tone, the woodwinds with lustre, the brass, "which has not quite the dignity and amplitude of our best German brass", with uncommon delicacy of execution.<ref name=reid123/> [[File:Karsavina-Salome.jpg|thumb|right|alt=full length portrait of ballerina in exotic costume|[[Tamara Karsavina]] as Salome in the Beecham Russian ballet season, 1913]] Beecham's 1913 seasons included the British premiere of Strauss's ''[[Der Rosenkavalier]]'' at Covent Garden, and a "Grand Season of Russian Opera and Ballet" at [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Drury Lane]].<ref>Reid, p. 141</ref> At the latter there were three operas, all starring [[Feodor Chaliapin]], and all new to Britain: [[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]]'s ''[[Boris Godunov (opera)|Boris Godunov]]'' and ''[[Khovanshchina]]'', and [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov]]'s [[The Maid of Pskov|''Ivan the Terrible'']]. There were also 15 ballets, with leading dancers including [[Vaslav Nijinsky]] and [[Tamara Karsavina]].<ref name=reid142>Reid, p. 142</ref> The ballets included [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]]'s ''[[Jeux]]'' and his controversially erotic ''[[Afternoon of a Faun (Nijinsky)|L'après-midi d'un faune]],'' and the British premiere of Stravinsky's ''[[The Rite of Spring]],'' six weeks after its first performance in Paris.<ref name=reid142/> Beecham shared Monteux's private dislike of the piece, much preferring ''Petrushka''.<ref>Reid, p. 145</ref> Beecham did not conduct during this season; Monteux and others conducted the Beecham Symphony Orchestra. The following year, Beecham and his father presented Rimsky-Korsakov's ''[[The Maid of Pskov]]'' and [[Alexander Borodin|Borodin]]'s ''[[Prince Igor]]'', with Chaliapin, and Stravinsky's ''[[The Nightingale (opera)|The Nightingale]].''<ref name=grove/> During the First World War, Beecham strove, often without a fee, to keep music alive in London, Liverpool, Manchester and other British cities.<ref>Reid, pp. 161–162</ref> He conducted for, and gave financial support to, three institutions with which he was connected at various times: the Hallé Orchestra, the LSO and the Royal Philharmonic Society. In 1915 he formed the [[Beecham Opera Company]], with mainly British singers, performing in London and throughout the country. In 1916, he received a [[Knight Bachelor|knighthood]] in the [[1916 New Year Honours|New Year Honours]]<ref>"The Honours List", ''[[The Times]]'', 1 January 1916, p. 9</ref> and succeeded to the [[baronet]]cy on his father's death later that year.<ref>Lucas, p. 136</ref> After the war, there were joint Covent Garden seasons with the Grand Opera Syndicate in 1919 and 1920, but these were, according to a biographer, pale confused echoes of the years before 1914.<ref name=reid181>Reid, p. 181</ref> These seasons included forty productions, of which Beecham conducted only nine.<ref name=reid181/> After the 1920 season, Beecham temporarily withdrew from conducting to deal with a financial problem that he described as "the most trying and unpleasant experience of my life".<ref>Beecham (1959), p. 181</ref> ===Covent Garden estate=== [[File:Covent-garden-panorama-1913.jpg|thumb|left|400px|alt=roofscape of inner London in 1913|1913 panorama of the Covent Garden estate]] Influenced by an ambitious financier, [[James White (financier)|James White]], Sir Joseph Beecham had agreed, in July 1914, to buy the Covent Garden estate from the [[Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford|Duke of Bedford]] and float a [[limited company]] to manage the estate commercially.<ref name=beecham142>Beecham (1959), p. 142</ref> The deal was described by ''[[The Times]]'' as "one of the largest ever carried out in real estate in London".<ref>"Covent Garden Estate: Sale of the Property to Sir Joseph Beecham", ''The Times'', 7 July 1914, p. 8</ref> Sir Joseph paid an initial deposit of £200,000 and covenanted to pay the balance of the £2 million purchase price on 11 November. Within a month, however, the First World War broke out, and new official restrictions on the use of capital prevented the completion of the contract.<ref name=beecham142/> The estate and market continued to be managed by the Duke's staff, and in October 1916, Joseph Beecham died suddenly, with the transaction still uncompleted.<ref name=sol>Sheppard, F. H. W. (ed). [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46089 "The Bedford Estate: The Sale of the Estate"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629214609/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46089 |date=29 June 2011 }}, ''Survey of London, Volume 36: Covent Garden'' (1970), pp. 48–52. Retrieved 14 March 2011</ref> The matter was brought before the civil courts with the aim of disentangling Sir Joseph's affairs; the court and all parties agreed that a private company should be formed, with his two sons as directors, to complete the Covent Garden contract. In July 1918, the Duke and his trustees conveyed the estate to the new company, subject to a mortgage of the balance of the purchase price still outstanding: £1.25 million.<ref name=sol/> Beecham and his brother Henry had to sell enough of their father's estate to discharge this mortgage. For more than three years, Beecham was absent from the musical scene, working to sell property worth over £1 million.<ref name=sol/> By 1923 enough money had been raised. The mortgage was discharged, and Beecham's personal liabilities, amounting to £41,558, were paid in full.<ref>"Sir Thomas Beecham to Pay in Full: The Receiving Order Discharged", ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'', 29 March 1923, p. 10</ref> In 1924 the Covent Garden property and the pill-making business at St Helens were united in one company, Beecham Estates and Pills. The nominal capital was £1,850,000, of which Beecham had a substantial share.<ref name=sol/> ===London Philharmonic=== After his absence, Beecham first reappeared on the rostrum conducting the Hallé in Manchester in March 1923, in a programme including works by [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]], [[Georges Bizet|Bizet]], Delius and [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]].<ref>[[Samuel Langford|Langford, Samuel]]. "The Hallé Concerts: Sir Thomas Beecham's Return", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 16 March 1923, p.18</ref> He returned to London the following month, conducting the combined Royal Albert Hall Orchestra (the renamed New Symphony Orchestra) and London Symphony Orchestra in April 1923. The main work on the programme was Richard Strauss's ''[[Ein Heldenleben]]''.<ref>"Albert Hall Concert: Sir Thomas Beecham's Return", ''The Times'', 9 April 1923, p. 10</ref> No longer with an orchestra of his own, Beecham established a relationship with the London Symphony Orchestra that lasted for the rest of the 1920s. Towards the end of the decade, he negotiated inconclusively with the BBC over the possibility of establishing a permanent radio orchestra.<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 138</ref> In 1931, Beecham was approached by the rising young conductor [[Malcolm Sargent]] with a proposal to set up a permanent, salaried orchestra with a subsidy guaranteed by Sargent's patrons, the Courtauld family.<ref>Aldous, p. 68</ref> Originally Sargent and Beecham envisaged a reshuffled version of the London Symphony Orchestra, but the LSO, a self-governing co-operative, balked at weeding out and replacing underperforming players. In 1932 Beecham lost patience and agreed with Sargent to set up a new orchestra from scratch.<ref>Reid, p. 202</ref> The [[London Philharmonic Orchestra]] (LPO), as it was named, consisted of 106 players including a few young musicians straight from music college, many established players from provincial orchestras, and 17 of the LSO's leading members.<ref>Morrison, p. 79</ref> The principals included [[Paul Beard (violinist)|Paul Beard]], George Stratton, [[Anthony Pini]], [[Gerald Jackson]], [[Léon Goossens]], [[Reginald Kell]], James Bradshaw and [[Marie Goossens]].<ref>Russell, p. 135</ref> [[File:Opening-concert-Queen's-Hall.jpg|thumb|left|alt=interior of nineteenth century concert hall, with audience in place|250px|The [[Queen's Hall]], the London Philharmonic's first home]] The orchestra made its debut at the Queen's Hall on 7 October 1932, conducted by Beecham. After the first item, Berlioz's ''[[Overtures by Hector Berlioz#Le carnaval romain|Roman Carnival Overture]]'', the audience went wild, some of them standing on their seats to clap and shout.<ref>Russell, p. 18</ref> During the next eight years, the LPO appeared nearly a hundred times at the Queen's Hall for the Royal Philharmonic Society alone, played for Beecham's opera seasons at Covent Garden, and made more than 300 gramophone records.<ref name=jefferson89>Jefferson, p. 89</ref> [[Berta Geissmar]], his secretary from 1936, wrote, "The relations between the Orchestra and Sir Thomas were always easy and cordial. He always treated a rehearsal as a joint undertaking with the Orchestra.{{space}}… The musicians were entirely unselfconscious with him. Instinctively they accorded him the artistic authority which he did not expressly claim. Thus he obtained the best from them and they gave it without reserve."<ref>Geissmar, p. 267</ref> By the early 1930s, Beecham had secured substantial control of the Covent Garden opera seasons.<ref>Jefferson, p. 171</ref> Wishing to concentrate on music-making rather than management, he assumed the role of artistic director, and [[Geoffrey Toye]] was recruited as managing director. In 1933, ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'' with [[Frida Leider]] and [[Lauritz Melchior]] was a success, and the season continued with the ''[[Der Ring des Nibelungen|Ring]]'' cycle and nine other operas.<ref>Jefferson, p. 170</ref> The 1934 season featured [[Conchita Supervía]] in ''[[La Cenerentola]],'' and [[Lotte Lehmann]] and [[Alexander Kipnis]] in the ''Ring''.<ref>Jefferson, p. 173</ref> [[Clemens Krauss]] conducted the British première of Strauss's ''[[Arabella]]''. During 1933 and 1934, Beecham repelled attempts by [[John Christie (opera manager)|John Christie]] to form a link between Christie's new [[Glyndebourne Festival Opera|Glyndebourne Festival]] and the Royal Opera House.<ref>Jefferson, p. 172</ref> Beecham and Toye fell out over the latter's insistence on bringing in a popular film star, [[Grace Moore]], to sing Mimi in ''[[La bohème]]''. The production was a box-office success, but an artistic failure.<ref>Jefferson, p. 175</ref> Beecham manoeuvred Toye out of the managing directorship in what their fellow conductor [[Adrian Boult|Sir Adrian Boult]] described as an "absolutely beastly" manner.<ref>Kennedy (1989), p. 174</ref> From 1935 to 1939, Beecham, now in sole control, presented international seasons with eminent guest singers and conductors.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 178–190</ref> Beecham conducted between a third and half of the performances each season. He intended the 1940 season to include the first complete performances of Berlioz's ''[[Les Troyens]]'', but the outbreak of the Second World War caused the season to be abandoned. Beecham did not conduct again at Covent Garden until 1951, and by then it was no longer under his control.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 178–190 and 197</ref> [[File:Hitler-Beecham-fake-press-photo.jpg|thumb|Fake photograph in Nazi press supposedly showing Beecham (right) in [[Adolf Hitler]]'s box during the 1936 LPO tour of Germany<ref>Jefferson, p. 194</ref>|alt=blurred and doctored press photograph showing a group in a box in a concert hall]] Beecham took the London Philharmonic on a controversial tour of Germany in 1936.<ref>Russell, p. 39</ref> There were complaints that he was being used by [[Nazi]] propagandists, and Beecham complied with a Nazi request not to play the ''Scottish'' Symphony of [[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]], who was a Christian by faith but a Jew by birth.{{refn|According to the biographer John Lucas, Beecham had intended to insist on including the Mendelssohn symphony, but was dissuaded by his assistant, Berta Geissmar, a Jewish refugee from the Nazis.<ref>Lucas, p. 231</ref> Geissmar herself says that she simply passed on a message from the German foreign minister, and the decision was Beecham's.<ref>Geissmar p. 233</ref> Throughout the tour, the orchestra flouted the custom of playing the Nazi anthem before concerts.<ref>Russell, p. 42</ref>|group= n}} In Berlin, Beecham's concert was attended by [[Adolf Hitler]], whose lack of punctuality caused Beecham to remark very audibly, "The old bugger's late."<ref>Lucas, p. 232</ref> After this tour, Beecham refused renewed invitations to give concerts in Germany,<ref>Reid, pp. 217–218</ref> although he honoured contractual commitments to conduct at the [[Berlin State Opera]], in 1937 and 1938, and recorded ''The Magic Flute'' for [[EMI Records|EMI]] in the Beethovensaal in Berlin in the same years.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 214–215</ref> As his sixtieth birthday approached, Beecham was advised by his doctors to take a year's complete break from music, and he planned to go abroad to rest in a warm climate.<ref name=Lucas239>Lucas, p. 239</ref> The [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|Australian Broadcasting Commission]] had been seeking for several years to get him to conduct in Australia.<ref name=Lucas239/> The outbreak of war on 3 September 1939 obliged him to postpone his plans for several months, striving instead to secure the future of the London Philharmonic, whose financial guarantees had been withdrawn by its backers when war was declared.<ref name=reid218>Reid, p. 218</ref> Before leaving, Beecham raised large sums of money for the orchestra and helped its members to form themselves into a self-governing company.<ref>Lucas, p. 240</ref> ===1940s=== Beecham left Britain in the spring of 1940, going first to Australia and then to North America. He became music director of the [[Seattle Symphony]] in 1941.<ref>Jefferson, p. 222</ref> In 1942 he joined the [[Metropolitan Opera]] as joint senior conductor with his former assistant Bruno Walter. He began with his own adaptation of [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach's]] comic cantata, ''Phoebus and Pan'', followed by ''[[The Golden Cockerel|Le Coq d'Or]]''. His main repertoire was French: ''Carmen, Louise'' (with Grace Moore), ''Manon'', ''[[Faust (opera)|Faust]]'', ''[[Mignon]]'' and ''The Tales of Hoffmann''. In addition to his Seattle and New York posts, Beecham was guest conductor with 18 American orchestras.<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 201</ref> In 1944, Beecham returned to Britain. Musically his reunion with the London Philharmonic was triumphant, but the orchestra, now, after his help in 1939, a self-governing [[cooperative|co-operative]], attempted to hire him on its own terms as its salaried artistic director.<ref>Reid, p. 230</ref> "I emphatically refuse", concluded Beecham, "to be wagged by any orchestra ... I am going to found one more great orchestra to round off my career."<ref name=reid231>Reid, p. 231</ref> When [[Walter Legge]] founded the [[Philharmonia Orchestra]] in 1945, Beecham conducted its first concert. But he was not disposed to accept a salaried position from Legge, his former assistant, any more than from his former players in the LPO.<ref name=reid231/> [[File:Thomas Beecham 1946.jpg|Beecham by [[Karsh of Ottawa]], 1946|thumb|left|upright|alt=elderly white man with white receding hair and very small moustache and imperial beard, in contemporary lounge suit, facing the camera but not looking directly at it]] In 1946, Beecham founded the [[Royal Philharmonic Orchestra]] (RPO), securing an agreement with the Royal Philharmonic Society that the new orchestra should replace the LPO at all the Society's concerts.<ref name=reid231/> Beecham later agreed with the Glyndebourne Festival that the RPO should be the resident orchestra at Glyndebourne each summer. He secured backing, including that of record companies in the US as well as Britain, with whom lucrative recording contracts were negotiated.<ref name=reid231/> As in 1909 and in 1932, Beecham's assistants recruited in the freelance pool and elsewhere. Original members of the RPO included James Bradshaw, [[Dennis Brain]], Leonard Brain, [[Archie Camden]], Gerald Jackson and Reginald Kell.<ref>Reid, p. 232</ref> The orchestra later became celebrated for its regular team of woodwind principals, often referred to as "The Royal Family", consisting of [[Jack Brymer]] (clarinet), [[Gwydion Brooke]] (bassoon), [[Terence MacDonagh]] (oboe) and Gerald Jackson (flute).<ref>Jenkins (2000), p. 5</ref> Beecham's long association with the Hallé Orchestra as a guest conductor ceased after [[John Barbirolli]] became the orchestra's chief conductor in 1944. Beecham was, to his great indignation, ousted from the honorary presidency of the Hallé Concerts Society,<ref>Lucas, pp. 308–310</ref> and Barbirolli refused to "let that man near my orchestra".<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 189</ref> Beecham's relationship with the Liverpool Philharmonic, which he had first conducted in 1911, was resumed harmoniously after the war. A manager of the orchestra recalled, "It was an unwritten law in Liverpool that first choice of dates offered to guest conductors was given to Beecham. ... In Liverpool there was one over-riding factor – he was adored."<ref>Stiff, Wilfred, ''quoted in'' Procter-Gregg, pp. 113–114</ref> ===1950s and later years=== Beecham, whom the BBC called "Britain's first international conductor",<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zddd4 "CD Review"], BBC Radio 3, 12 March 2011. Retrieved 12 March 2011</ref> took the RPO on a strenuous tour through the United States, Canada and South Africa in 1950.<ref name=grove/><ref name=dnb/> During the North American tour, Beecham conducted 49 concerts in almost daily succession.<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 200</ref> In 1951, he was invited to conduct at Covent Garden after a 12-year absence.<ref name=reid236>Reid, p. 236</ref> State-funded for the first time, the opera company operated quite differently from his pre-war regime. Instead of short, star-studded seasons, with a major symphony orchestra, the new director [[David Webster (opera manager)|David Webster]] was attempting to build up a permanent ensemble of home-grown talent performing all the year round, in English translations. Extreme economy in productions and great attention to the box-office were essential, and Beecham, though he had been hurt and furious at his exclusion, was not suited to participate in such an undertaking.<ref>Haltrecht, p. 106</ref> When offered a chorus of eighty singers for his return, conducting ''[[Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg|Die Meistersinger]]'', he insisted on augmenting their number to 200. He also, contrary to Webster's policy, insisted on performing the piece in German.<ref name=reid236/> In 1953 at [[Oxford]], Beecham presented the world premiere of Delius's first opera, ''[[Irmelin]]'', and his last operatic performances in Britain were in 1955 at [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], with [[André Grétry|Grétry]]'s ''Zémire et Azor''.<ref name=dnb/> Between 1951 and 1960, Beecham conducted 92 concerts at the [[Royal Festival Hall]].<ref>Jefferson, p. 103</ref> Characteristic Beecham programmes of the RPO years included symphonies by Bizet, [[César Franck|Franck]], [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]], [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]] and [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]]; Richard Strauss's ''Ein Heldenleben''; concertos by Mozart and [[Camille Saint-Saëns|Saint-Saëns]]; a Delius and [[Jean Sibelius|Sibelius]] programme; and many of his favoured shorter pieces.<ref>"Concerts", ''The Times'', 13 and 29 September 18 and 25 October 1, 15 and 29 November and 6 December 1958</ref> He did not stick uncompromisingly to his familiar repertoire. After the sudden death of the German conductor [[Wilhelm Furtwängler]] in 1954, Beecham in tribute conducted the two programmes his colleague had been due to present at the Festival Hall; these included Bach's [[Brandenburg concertos|Third Brandenburg Concerto]], [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]]'s ''[[Rapsodie espagnole]]'', [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]]'s [[Symphony No. 1 (Brahms)|Symphony No. 1]], and [[Samuel Barber|Barber]]'s ''Second Essay for Orchestra''.<ref>"Concerts", ''The Times'', 19 and 21 January 1955</ref> [[File:Thomas Beecham grave.jpg|thumb|alt=Beecham's gravestone|Beecham's grave at St Peter's Church in [[Limpsfield]], Surrey. His epitaph is from the play ''[[The False One]]'' by [[Francis Beaumont]] and [[Philip Massinger]], Act 2 Scene 1, 169. ]] In the summer of 1958, Beecham conducted a season at the [[Teatro Colón]], Buenos Aires, Argentina, consisting of Verdi's ''[[Otello]],'' Bizet's ''Carmen'', Beethoven's ''[[Fidelio]],'' Saint-Saëns's ''[[Samson and Delilah (opera)|Samson and Delilah]]'' and Mozart's ''The Magic Flute''. These were his last operatic performances.<ref name=reid238>Reid, pp. 238–239</ref> It was during this season that Betty Humby died suddenly. She was cremated in Buenos Aires and her ashes returned to England. Beecham's own last illness prevented his operatic debut at Glyndebourne in a planned ''Magic Flute'' and a final appearance at Covent Garden conducting Berlioz's ''The Trojans''.{{refn|Colin Davis, Beecham's assistant for the Glyndebourne production, took on the ''Magic Flute'' performances, and [[Rafael Kubelík]] conducted the Berlioz.<ref>"Sudden Setback for Sir Thomas Beecham", ''The Times'', 13 July 1960, p. 12; and "''The Trojans'' Revived", ''The Times'', 30 April 1960, p. 10</ref>|group= n}} Sixty-six years after his first visit to America, Beecham made his last, beginning in late 1959, conducting in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and Washington. During this tour, he also conducted in Canada. He flew back to London on 12 April 1960 and did not leave England again.<ref>Jefferson, pp. 21 and 226–27</ref> His final concert was at [[Portsmouth Guildhall]] on 7 May 1960. The programme, all characteristic choices, comprised the ''Magic Flute'' Overture, Haydn's [[Symphony No. 100 (Haydn)|Symphony No. 100]] (the ''Military''), Beecham's own Handel arrangement, ''Love in Bath'', Schubert's [[Symphony No. 5 (Schubert)|Symphony No. 5]], ''On the River'' by Delius, and the ''Bacchanale'' from ''Samson and Delilah''.<ref>Reid, p. 244</ref> Beecham died of a [[coronary thrombosis]] at his London residence, aged 81, on 8 March 1961.<ref>Reid, p. 245</ref> He was buried two days later in [[Brookwood Cemetery]], Surrey. Owing to changes at Brookwood, his remains were exhumed in 1991 and reburied in [[Church of St Peter, Limpsfield|St Peter]]'s Churchyard at [[Limpsfield]], Surrey, close to the joint grave of Delius and his wife [[Jelka Rosen]].<ref>Lucas, p. 339</ref> ===Personal life=== [[File:Adrian-Beecham.jpg|thumb|left|150px|alt=full length portrait of young man in 1920s clothes|Beecham's son, the composer Adrian Beecham]] Beecham was married three times. In 1903 he married Utica Celestina Welles, daughter of Dr Charles S. Welles, of New York, and his wife Ella Celeste, ''née'' Miles.<ref>Lucas, pp. 11, 12 and 24</ref> Beecham and his wife had two sons: Adrian, born in 1904, who became a composer and achieved some celebrity in the 1920s and 1930s,<ref>"The World of Music", ''[[The Illustrated London News]]'', 30 September 1922, p. 514</ref> and Thomas, born in 1909.<ref name=reid62/> After the birth of his second child, Beecham began to drift away from the marriage. By 1911, no longer living with his wife and family, he was involved as co-respondent in a much-publicised divorce case.<ref>Reid, pp. 112–120</ref> Utica ignored advice that she should divorce him and secure substantial alimony; she did not believe in divorce.<ref name=reid120>Reid, p. 120</ref> She never remarried after Beecham divorced her (in 1943), and she outlived her former husband by sixteen years, dying in 1977.<ref>Obituary, ''The Times'', 14 October 1977, p. 17</ref> In 1909 or early 1910, Beecham began an affair with Maud Alice (known as Emerald), [[Maud Cunard|Lady Cunard]]. Although they never lived together, it continued, despite other relationships on his part, until his remarriage in 1943.<ref name=dnb/> She was a tireless fund-raiser for his musical enterprises.<ref>Reid, pp. 134–137</ref> Beecham's biographers are agreed that she was in love with him, but that his feelings for her were less strong.<ref name=reid120/><ref>Jefferson, p. 39</ref> During the 1920s and 1930s, Beecham also had an affair with [[Dora Labbette]], a soprano sometimes known as Lisa Perli, with whom he had a son, Paul Strang, born in March 1933.<ref>Lucas, p. 212</ref> Strang, a lawyer who served on the boards of several musical institutions, died in April 2024.<ref>''[https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/remembering-paul-strang-1933-2024/ Remembering Paul Strang (1933–2024)]'', Trinity Laban, 4 April 2024</ref> In 1943 Lady Cunard was devastated to learn (not from Beecham) that he intended to divorce Utica to marry [[Betty Humby Beecham|Betty Humby]], a concert pianist 29 years his junior.<ref name=reid220>Reid, p. 220</ref> Beecham married Betty in 1943, and they were a devoted couple until her death in 1958.<ref name=reid238/> On 10 August 1959, two years before his death, he married in Zurich his former secretary, Shirley Hudson, who had worked for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's administration since 1950. She was 27, he 80.<ref>Reid, p. 241</ref>
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)