Opera , symphony , all sorts of instrumental and vocal music but not chamber music .sx His reading was considerable in classical and English and French literature .sx He knew Dickens by heart , but ranked " Vanity Fair " of Thackeray the greatest English novel of his period .sx He was sceptical of contemporary writing as he was of the latest composition .sx I guessed that in politics he was a conservative- with freedom to be against the Government whatever its colour or party .sx He loved good food and good wine , and his cigars , but not to excess .sx No alcohol had power over his quick balanced mind .sx I was taken aback when he reflected one day on his career :sx " Do you know , I sometimes wonder if I haven't wasted myself to some degree by giving myself almost wholly to music .sx For music does not ever encourage abstract thinking or pungency of comment or dialectical agility .sx Perhaps I was really born for the legal profession .sx " I pointed out that in music he was an absolutist , that he had no patience with music which carried extra-musical significances , and that also he had no patience with conductors , or any other performer , who found an argument , a dialectic or the faintest hint of a metaphysic in music .sx He didn't seek beyond the notes and the forms of music for some inner meaning .sx Often he gave me the impression that he was not so much the " possessed " artist in music as the connoisseur , collecting composers as he collected his furniture and plate .sx He fondled music , handled it carefully and dotingly- unless it was of the sort that protested too much , assaulted fastidiousness of taste and sensitivity .sx " Mahler ?sx Wagner ?sx Bruckner ?sx " he would say , cross-examining me .sx " They are not civilised .sx Mahler exposes his self-pity ; Wagner , though a tremendous genius , gorged music , like a German who overeats .sx And Bruckner was a hobbledehoy who had no style at all .sx All three of them knew nothing about poise or modesty .sx Even Beethoven thumped the tub ; the Ninth symphony was composed by a kind of Mr. Gladstone of music .sx " All that doesn't imply that he was at all short of masculinity , red corpuscles .sx He could ride roughshod over his dislikes , people or compositions .sx Given the impulse from the right source , his musical energy- ( his physical energy too !sx )- concentrated into artistic and proportionate shapes .sx His interpretation of the " Requiem Mass " of Berlioz has seldom been equalled for emotional intensity and sure-minded control of the outlines .sx His temperament and intelligence responded more readily to Latin than to German stimulations , aesthetic or other .sx Sometimes he gave his conscience a holiday .sx At Liverpool an inordinately heavy programme was goading the orchestra to open rebellion , especially as Sir Thomas prolonged the interval .sx The concert was taking place on the eve of the world's greatest steeplechase .sx When Sir Thomas returned to the platform he immediately sensed the temper of his players- and the next work to tackle was the " great C major " symphony of Schubert .sx Sir Thomas extended his arms , the baton militant .sx " Now , gentlemen , " he said , " now for the Grand National .sx " The performance was magnificent .sx One gust of his humour dispersed all animosities .sx He was not , as I say , liked or admired by everybody while he was the spruce disdainful Mr. Thomas Beecham .sx He was suspected of Dandyism and , in fact , he was the last of the Dandies .sx He kept audiences waiting at his concerts .sx In Manchester , during one of his opera seasons there , he kept the audience waiting half an hour for a performance of Isidore de Lara's " Nai"l .sx " In those years his manners at a symphony concert did not appeal to the taste of the Establishment of British music .sx The music critic of the " Manchester " - Samuel Langford- took him to task on account of his acrobatic gestures as he conducted .sx At one concert his baton flew from his hand and nearly impaled the first trombone .sx Moreover , he was suspected of " amateurism"- long before Toscanini actually called him an " amateur .sx " A complex character !sx - Falstaff , Puck and Malvolio all mixed up , each likely to overwhelm the others .sx Witty , then waggish ; supercilious , then genial , kindly , and sometimes cruel ; an artist in affectation yet somehow always himself .sx Lancashire in his bones , yet a man of the world .sx Rachmaninoff told a friend that he was unhappy about a forthcoming concert .sx " The conductor- so-and-so- he has no temperament .sx It is always so in England .sx Too many the English gentlemens .sx " " But , " his friend pointed out " last year you said your concert with Sir Thomas Beecham was one of the best and happiest of your life .sx " " Ah , " rejoined Rachmaninoff , " but Sir Thomas is not one of your English gentlemens .sx " In the prime of his life and career , Sir Thomas was as closely associated with Manchester as with London or anywhere else .sx During the 1914-1918 war he kept the city's music alive by the sparkle , vivacity , and sway of his personality .sx His concerts with the Halle@2 Orchestra and his opera productions in Quay Street elevated the city far above provincial levels .sx Until he dominated the scene Manchester's music was mainly of German extraction , as we have noted already and will probably note again .sx Richter had not served Manchester in a backward-looking way .sx He conducted all the symphonic poems of Richard Strauss in one season at a time when- 6mirabile dictu !sx - Strauss was considered as " modern , " iconoclast and unmusical as any later " nberg , Webern , or Boulez .sx Stanford went so far as to compose a musical satire of Strauss- " An Ode to Discord .sx " Ernest Newman abjured us to listen to Strauss " horizontally " while the battle-section of " Ein Heldenleben " was played .sx It is nowadays generally forgotten that Strauss came to renown or notoriety in this country exclusively on the strength of his symphonic poems .sx Outside London " Der Rosenkavalier , " " Salome " and " Elektra " were little known here .sx But Richter's enterprise ended with the " progressive German composers .sx " It is true that he was the first conductor to put Elgar on the musical map , the reason being , I fancy , that in Elgar he heard here and there the echo of his own native musical language .sx To a deputation of Manchester's youthful 6avant garde , demanding some representation at the Halle@2 Concerts of modern French music , Richter replied , " 3Zthere iss no mod'n F-french Musik .sx " Beecham brought pagan allurements to the Halle@2 , " classical"- Scene =4 of Act =2 of Delius's " A Village Romeo and Juliet , " Stravinsky's " Firebird " suite , Borodin's " Polovtsian Dances , " all in the same programme .sx Between the two wars he naturally modulated to a conversation indicative of the fact that he was now old enough to put behind him childish things .sx But never would he desert Delius .sx On the " classical " side he discovered Haydn for English ears .sx He even proposed introducing to Manchester Stravinsky's " Le Sacre du " ; but the orchestral parts went astray .sx The Halle@2 Concerts Committee asked for a substitute piece at short notice .sx Beecham suggested a Beethoven symphony .sx No ; already the season's programme had included enough Beethoven .sx They asked Sir Thomas to conduct Mendelssohn's " Italian " symphony .sx " Impossible , " replied Sir Thomas , " quite impossible , with only two rehearsals .sx " " But , " argued the committee , " you were content with two rehearsals for 'Le Sacre .sx ' " " Quite so , " said Sir Thomas blandly , " I could play 'Le Sacre' well enough after two rehearsals .sx For the 'Italian' symphony five at least is absolutely necessary .sx " His creation of the London Philharmonic Orchestra absorbed him and his time in the 1930s ; consequently his appearances in Manchester became intermittent .sx After the resignation of Sir Hamilton Harty in 1933 as the permanent conductor of the Halle@2 Concerts , the orchestra declined in its ensemble .sx Another permanent conductor was needed , but the Halle@2 Society were reluctant to appoint one for fear of losing Sir Thomas's presence altogether .sx And Sir Thomas scared the society by attacking the B.B.C. , forecasting that broadcasting would keep people away from concerts .sx As critic of the " Manchester Guardian , " in Manchester in the 1930s , I pointed out week by week the falling away of the orchestra in unity of style .sx But my friendship with Sir Thomas , resumed soon after our argument about his " cuts " in " Der Rosenkavalier , " was now apparently unclouded .sx I was vastly surprised and amused to learn from Michael Kennedy's history of the Halle@2 Concerts that in 1937 Sir Thomas wrote to the society stating " that he refused to conduct any concert to which Mr. Neville Cardus was invited .sx " 6Et tu , Sir Thomas !sx And all the time I imagined my notices were generously kind about him .sx Never did he refer to this letter to the Halle@2 Society , demanding my excommunication , at any of my subsequent meetings with him , not even during our day by day , night by night expressions of brotherly love in Australia .sx It was round about 1931 that he told me he was about to form a new orchestra in London .sx " But where , " I asked , " where do you hope to find the players ?sx - the B.B.C. Orchestra has taken the best .sx " " Maybe , " he admitted " the B.B.C. has indeed attracted the best known instrumentalists of Great Britain .sx But you'll see !sx " In 1932 the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra played for the first time at the Queen's Hall .sx The performance of the " Carnaval Romain " overture of Berlioz was staggeringly brilliant .sx A highly finished performance of Mozart's " Prague " symphony almost jerked me from my seat when Sir Thomas brought in the D major principal theme , after the introduction , at the same adagio tempo , instead of allegro .sx My notice next day called for some explanation of this curious treatment or maladjustment .sx In his flat in Hallam Street , and while he was still in bed , working on a score , he took away my breath ( not for the first or the last time ) by assuring me that his tempo for the main theme after the introduction was authentic .sx " You are probably acquainted only with the published score .sx . but I have seen the original manuscript written by Mozart's own hand .sx . " All the same , the next time he conducted the " Prague " symphony the theme in question was allegro all right and unmistakably .sx He was in a word , capable de tout !sx Apart from some piano lessons in boyhood he was self-taught .sx He states the contrary in his biography , " A Mingled Chime , " where he writes , " In public accounts of my career has frequently appeared the assertion that I am almost entirely self-taught and , beginning as a rank amateur , have attained a professional status with some difficulty after a long and painful novitiate .sx Nothing could be more remote from the truth .sx It is possible that at the age of twenty I might have failed to answer some of the questions in an examination paper set for boys of sixteen in a musical academy ; but probably I should fail with equal success to-day ; and I venture to say that a tolerable number of my most gifted colleagues would do no better .sx On the other hand , owing to my travels abroad and wider associations with musicians here and there , my miscellaneous fund of information was much more extensive than that of others of my age .sx " For Sir Thomas , this is positively " ve .sx There was music of sorts in his St. Helens home ; his father practised music " as a hobby .sx " Sir Thomas substantially educated himself , as Elgar did , and Ernest Newman and Delius , perhaps the most cultured and influential figures in our music's history since Purcell .sx He came down from Oxford after only a year or so there because , as he explained to me , " there was no musical life broad and humane enough .sx As for the rest of my studies at Oxford , they were not attractively conducted .sx And I could discover no mind or intelligence among my fellow undergraduates which didn't indicate permanent adolescence .sx In those days , even to-day in fact , the average University-educated Englishman is a case of arrested development , emotionally , aesthetically and sexually .sx " His own capacity for deep feeling was not often or obviously hinted at in his studied deportment away from the concert platform or desk at the opera .sx He gave unmistakable proof of it in my company only once , during one of the last evenings I spent with him alone a few months after Lady Betty's sudden death .sx