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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
Organs
Opera
Immortality
Played
Achieve
Cannot
Going
Grinder
Organ

More quotes by Thomas Beecham

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If she is attractive, I can't perform with her if she is not, then I won't.
Thomas Beecham
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Too much counterpoint what is worse, Protestant counterpoint.
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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.
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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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They are quite hopeless - drooling, driveling, doleful, depressing, dropsical drips.
Thomas Beecham
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No operatic star has yet died soon enough for me.
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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
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Elgar's first symphony is the musical equivalent of St Pancras Railway Station.
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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No woman is worth the loss of a night's sleep.
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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A soprano in Massenet's Don Quixote complained that she had missed her entry in the aria, because Mr. Challiapin always dies too soon. Madam, you must be profoundly in error, said Sir Thomas, No operatic star has yet died half soon enough for me.
Thomas Beecham
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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.
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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I have just been all round the world and have formed a very poor opinion of it.
Thomas Beecham
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Without question the most unpopular medium of musical sound in the world.
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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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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What can you do with it? It's like a lot of yaks jumping about.
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.
Thomas Beecham