Editing Thomas Beecham (section)

===1940s===
Beecham left Britain in the spring of 1940, going first to Australia and then to North America. He became music director of the [[Seattle Symphony]] in 1941.<ref>Jefferson, p. 222</ref> In 1942 he joined the [[Metropolitan Opera]] as joint senior conductor with his former assistant Bruno Walter. He began with his own adaptation of [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach's]] comic cantata, ''Phoebus and Pan'', followed by ''[[The Golden Cockerel|Le Coq d'Or]]''. His main repertoire was French: ''Carmen, Louise'' (with Grace Moore), ''Manon'', ''[[Faust (opera)|Faust]]'', ''[[Mignon]]'' and ''The Tales of Hoffmann''. In addition to his Seattle and New York posts, Beecham was guest conductor with 18 American orchestras.<ref>Procter-Gregg, p. 201</ref>

In 1944, Beecham returned to Britain. Musically his reunion with the London Philharmonic was triumphant, but the orchestra, now, after his help in 1939, a self-governing [[cooperative|co-operative]], attempted to hire him on its own terms as its salaried artistic director.<ref>Reid, p. 230</ref>  "I emphatically refuse", concluded Beecham, "to be wagged by any orchestra ... I am going to found one more great orchestra to round off my career."<ref name=reid231>Reid, p. 231</ref> When [[Walter Legge]] founded the [[Philharmonia Orchestra]] in 1945, Beecham conducted its first concert. But he was not disposed to accept a salaried position from Legge, his former assistant, any more than from his former players in the LPO.<ref name=reid231/>
[[File:Thomas Beecham 1946.jpg|Beecham by [[Karsh of Ottawa]], 1946|thumb|left|upright|alt=elderly white man with white receding hair and very small moustache and imperial beard, in contemporary lounge suit, facing the camera but not looking directly at it]]
In 1946, Beecham founded the [[Royal Philharmonic Orchestra]] (RPO), securing an agreement with the Royal Philharmonic Society that the new orchestra should replace the LPO at all the Society's concerts.<ref name=reid231/> Beecham later agreed with the Glyndebourne Festival that the RPO should be the resident orchestra at Glyndebourne each summer. He secured backing, including that of record companies in the US as well as Britain, with whom lucrative recording contracts were negotiated.<ref name=reid231/> As in 1909 and in 1932, Beecham's assistants recruited in the freelance pool and elsewhere. Original members of the RPO included James Bradshaw, [[Dennis Brain]], Leonard Brain, [[Archie Camden]], Gerald Jackson and Reginald Kell.<ref>Reid, p. 232</ref> The orchestra later became celebrated for its regular team of woodwind principals, often referred to as "The Royal Family", consisting of [[Jack Brymer]] (clarinet), [[Gwydion Brooke]] (bassoon), [[Terence MacDonagh]] (oboe) and Gerald Jackson (flute).<ref>Jenkins (2000), p. 5</ref>

Beecham's long association with the Hallé Orchestra as a guest conductor ceased after [[John Barbirolli]] became the orchestra's chief conductor in 1944. Beecham was, to his great indignation, ousted from the honorary presidency of the Hallé Concerts Society,<ref>Lucas, pp. 308–310</ref> and Barbirolli refused to "let that man near my orchestra".<ref>Kennedy (1971), p. 189</ref> Beecham's relationship with the Liverpool Philharmonic, which he had first conducted in 1911, was resumed harmoniously after the war. A manager of the orchestra recalled, "It was an unwritten law in Liverpool that first choice of dates offered to guest conductors was given to Beecham. ... In Liverpool there was one over-riding factor – he was adored."<ref>Stiff, Wilfred, ''quoted in'' Procter-Gregg, pp. 113–114</ref>