Thomas Beecham Quotes

Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory.

Asked if he had ever conducted any Stockhausen, he said, "No, but I once trod in some."

I found it as alluring as a wayward woman and determined to tame it.

What can you do with it? It's like a lot of yaks jumping about."''

A musicologist is a man who can read music but can't hear it.

If I cannot sing a work, I cannot conduct it.

The grand tune is the only thing in music that the great public really understands.

Too much counterpoint; what is worse, Protestant counterpoint.

The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought.

The musical equivalent of the towers of St Pancras Station

No composer has written as much as 100 bars of worthwhile music since 1925.