Quote #14

When asked why only male composers appeared in his repertoire, he said 'There are no women composers, never have been, and possibly never will be' (however he later revised this view, and became a champion of Ethel Smyth's music)

More from Thomas Beecham

  1. 'Here are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn't give a damn what goes on in between.'
  2. He helped Walter Legge underwrite the creation of the Philharmonia Orchestra, and conducted its premiere concert on 25 October, 1945. Later…
  3. Of Beethoven - 'Beethoven's last quartets were written by a deaf man and should only be listened to by a deaf man'
  4. It is said that in one rehearsal he was unsatisfied with the performance of a female cello soloist, and so said to her 'Madam, you have bet…
  5. On Beethoven's Seventh Symphony: 'What can you do with it? It's like a lot of yaks jumping about.'
  6. No composer has written as much as 100 bars of worthwhile music since 1925.
  7. 'Try everything once except folk dancing and incest'. (This is also attributed to Sir Arnold Bax, George S. Kaufman, Oscar Wilde and Winsto…
  8. A city life for me!

All Thomas Beecham quotes