Sir Thomas Beecham

Whenever a team is being picked for a match like England v Wales (this Saturday) I think of the advice I would like to give the selectors. It is the answer to a question asked by a reporter to Sir Thomas Beecham. "How is it that you have created such a wonderful orchestra?" Beecham replied: "I choose the best players and I allow them to play." Good idea for those who like to have complete control over how the players perform. Let them play for God's sake!
It of course not entirely true of Beecham and his orchestra; Beecham exerted tremendous control over his orchestra so he didn't just "allow them to play". But as with many of Beecham's sayings there is usually an element of truth in them.
Of Elgar's music he said that it made him think of "the facade of Euston station" (though sometimes he varied this and made it "St Pancras station").
Of Vaughan Williams's music he said :"He composed a good piece when he was young, the Thomas Trallis variations, but continued to compose the same piece throughout the rest of his life."
Of Wales he said: "There is no music in Wales."
My favourite Beecham story has to do with when he once attended a dinner given by a particularly gushing hostess who remarked that there was "on the music scene an excellent new conductor, a certain Malcolm Sergeant". Silence from Beecham as he sipped his soup. "O yes," continued the hostess, "he's doing a wonderful job with the orchestra he's conducting." Silence. More sipping of soup. "And they say that when he was on a tour in the Middle East with his orchestra he found himself in the middle of a street riot where bullets were fired, some of them hitting his car...." Beecham looked up. "I didn't know the Arabs were so fond of music," he said.