Editing Thomas Beecham (section)

==Relations with others==
Beecham's relations with fellow British conductors were not always cordial. [[Sir Henry Wood]] regarded him as an upstart and was envious of his success;<ref>Jacobs, pp. 330–332</ref> the scrupulous [[Sir Adrian Boult]] found him "repulsive" as a man and a musician;<ref>Kennedy (1989), p. 154</ref> and [[Sir John Barbirolli]] mistrusted him.<ref>Jefferson, p. 183</ref> [[Sir Malcolm Sargent]] worked with him in founding the London Philharmonic and was a friend and ally, but he was the subject of unkind, though witty, digs from Beecham who, for example, described the image-conscious [[Herbert von Karajan]] as "a kind of musical Malcolm Sargent".<ref>Atkins, p. 61</ref> Beecham's relations with foreign conductors were often excellent. He did not get on well with [[Arturo Toscanini]],<ref>Jefferson, p. 105</ref> but he liked and encouraged [[Wilhelm Furtwängler]],<ref>Jefferson, p. 179</ref> admired [[Pierre Monteux]],<ref>Canarina, p. 291</ref> fostered [[Rudolf Kempe]] as his successor with the RPO, and was admired by [[Fritz Reiner]],<ref>Reid, p. 192</ref> [[Otto Klemperer]]<ref>Klemperer, p.193</ref> and Karajan.<ref>Osborne, p. 248</ref>

Despite his lordly drawl, Beecham remained a Lancastrian at heart. "In ''my'' county, where ''I'' come from, we're all a bit vulgar, you know, but there is a certain heartiness&nbsp;– a sort of bonhomie about our vulgarity&nbsp;– which tides you over a lot of rough spots in the path. But in ''Yorkshire'', in a spot of bother, they're so damn-set-in-their-ways that there's no doing anything with them!"<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 152</ref>

Beecham has been much quoted. In 1929, the editor of a music journal wrote, "The stories gathered around Sir Thomas Beecham are innumerable. Wherever musicians come together, he is likely to be one of the topics of conversation. Everyone telling a Beecham story tries to imitate his manner and his tone of voice."<ref>Grew, Sydney. "British Conductors", ''British Musician and Musical News'', June 1929, p. 154</ref> A book, ''Beecham Stories'', was published in 1978 consisting entirely of his ''bons mots'' and anecdotes about him.<ref>Atkins, ''passim''</ref> Some are variously attributed to Beecham or one or more other people, including [[Arnold Bax]] and [[Winston Churchill]]; [[Neville Cardus]] admitted to inventing some himself.<ref>Cardus, p. 26</ref>{{refn|A typical, and well known, Beecham story&nbsp;– which, like many Beecham stories, is much repeated but not reliably verified&nbsp;– is of his meeting a distinguished woman whose face was familiar but whose name he could not remember. After some preliminaries about the weather, and desperately racking his brain, he asked after her family:
:"My brother has been rather ill lately."
:"Ah, yes, your brother. I'm sorry to hear that. And, er, what is your brother doing at the moment?"
:"Well ... he's still King", replied [[Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom|Princess Victoria]].<ref>One of the many variants of this story is printed in Atkins, p. 89</ref>|group= n}} Among the Beecham lines that are reliably attributed are, "A musicologist is a man who can read music but can't hear it";<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 154; and Cardus, p. 75</ref> his maxim, "There are only two things requisite so far as the public is concerned for a good performance: that is for the orchestra to begin together and end together; in between it doesn't matter much";<ref>"Jolts and Jars: some wit and wisdom by Sir Thomas Beecham", ''[[The Listener (magazine)|The Listener]]'', 3 October 1974; also heard on the EMI "Beecham in Rehearsal" disc, EMI CDM 7 64465 2 (1992)</ref> and his remark at his 70th birthday celebrations after telegrams were read out from Strauss, Stravinsky and Sibelius: "Nothing from Mozart?"<ref>Cardus, p. 125; and Atkins, p. 48</ref>

He was completely indifferent to mundane tasks such as correspondence, and was less than responsible with the property of others.  On one occasion, during bankruptcy proceedings, two thousand unopened letters were discovered among his papers. [[Havergal Brian]] sent him three scores with a view to having them performed.  One of them, the ''Second English Suite'', was never returned and is now considered lost.<ref>Charles Reid, ''Thomas Beecham: An Independent Biography'', 1961, p. 93</ref><ref>[http://klassichaus.us/documents/HavergalBrianSocietyNL228.pdf The Havergal Brian Society Newsletter, No. 228, July–August 2013, p. 3, footnote 28]. Retrieved 23 May 2016</ref>