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If an opera cannot be played by an organ grinder, it's not going to achieve immortality.

Thomas Beecham

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Thomas Beecham
Age: 81 †
Born: 1879
Born: April 29
Died: 1961
Died: March 8
Conductor
Sir Thomas Beecham
2nd Baronet
Achieve
Cannot
Going
Grinder
Organ
Organs
Opera
Immortality
Played

More quotes by Thomas Beecham

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Composers should write tunes that chauffeurs and errand boys can whistle.
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No woman is worth the loss of a night's sleep.
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They are quite hopeless - drooling, driveling, doleful, depressing, dropsical drips.
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The trouble with women in an orchestra is that if they're attractive it will upset my players and if they're not it will upset me.
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The bagpipes sound exactly the same when you have finished as when you started
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Elgar's first symphony is the musical equivalent of St Pancras Railway Station.
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Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory.
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I have just been all round the world and have formed a very poor opinion of it.
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The sound of the harpsichord resembles that of a bird-cage played with toasting-forks.
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If she is attractive, I can't perform with her if she is not, then I won't.
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No operatic star has yet died soon enough for me.
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The English may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes.
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In the first movement alone, I took note of six pregnancies and at least four miscarriages.
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Too much counterpoint what is worse, Protestant counterpoint.
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It is quite untrue that British people don't appreciate music. They may not understand it but they absolutely love the noise it makes.
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Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands and all you can do is scratch it.
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Composers and musicians have always starved and, as this is a sentimental country, we think the tradition should be continued.
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I find brass bands have a melancholy sound. All right out of doors, of course - fifty miles away. Like bagpipes, they turn what had been a dream into a public nuisance.
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The sound of a harpsichord - two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm.
Thomas Beecham
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There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn't give a damn what goes on in between.
Thomas Beecham