Arturo Toscanini Memorial Concert Archive

The Music Treasury for 2 December 2018 — Sir Thomas Beecham

by Audiophile Audition | Dec 1, 2018 | Streams and Podcasts

The Music Treasury will feature “rarities” by conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, a distinctive and so significant figure in this past century.  The show airs from 19:00 to 21:00 PST on Stanford’s KZSU, with concurrent streaming online from kzsu.stanford.edu.  As always, the show is hosted by Dr Gary Lemco. Sir Thomas Beecham (1879-1961): Rarities [From Wikipedia] Thomas Beecham was born in 1879 in St. Helens, Lancashire, in the north of England. He was self-taught as a conductor. He had some private composition lessons from Charles Wood in London and from Moszkowski in Paris. Beecham’s father, Sir Joseph Beecham, had made a reasonable fortune making medicines (the famous Beecham pills), and he liked music, so he was able to help Thomas in his chosen career as a musician. Thomas was 20 years old when his father was reinstated as mayor of St. Helens. To celebrate this event, his father paid for the Hallé Orchestra to give a concert. It was to be conducted by the famous German conductor, Hans Richter. However, a few days before the concert, it was announced that Richter was ill. Thomas immediately said he would conduct the concert. The orchestra at first refused to play for a 20-year-old […]