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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
Immortality
Played
Achieve
Cannot
Going
Grinder
Organ
Organs
Opera

More quotes by Thomas Beecham

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The British like any kind of music so long as it is loud.
Thomas Beecham
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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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At a rehearsal I let the orchestra play as they like. At the concert I make them play as I like.
Thomas Beecham
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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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The English may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes.
Thomas Beecham
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Brass bands are all very well in their place - outdoors and several miles away.
Thomas Beecham
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Too much counterpoint what is worse, Protestant counterpoint.
Thomas Beecham
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Composers should write tunes that chauffeurs and errand boys can whistle.
Thomas Beecham
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Without question the most unpopular medium of musical sound in the world.
Thomas Beecham
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What can you do with it? It's like a lot of yaks jumping about.
Thomas Beecham
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The sound of the harpsichord resembles that of a bird-cage played with toasting-forks.
Thomas Beecham
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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.
Thomas Beecham
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In the first movement alone, I took note of six pregnancies and at least four miscarriages.
Thomas Beecham
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Elgar's first symphony is the musical equivalent of St Pancras Railway Station.
Thomas Beecham
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No operatic star has yet died soon enough for me.
Thomas Beecham
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They are quite hopeless - drooling, driveling, doleful, depressing, dropsical drips.
Thomas Beecham
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The bagpipes sound exactly the same when you have finished as when you started
Thomas Beecham
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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.
Thomas Beecham
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Composers and musicians have always starved and, as this is a sentimental country, we think the tradition should be continued.
Thomas Beecham
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The sound of a harpsichord - two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm.
Thomas Beecham