Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet | British Conductor & Orchestral Innovator (2024)

Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet (born April 29, 1879, St. Helens, Lancashire, Eng.—died March 8, 1961, London) was a conductor and impresario who founded and led several major orchestras and used his personal fortune for the improvement of orchestral and operatic performances in England.

Beecham was the grandson of the founder of the “Beecham’s pills” business, which provided him with the funds he so lavishly spent on the development of symphonic and operatic music. Beecham studied composition and made his London debut as a conductor in 1905. In 1906 he began a series of concerts with his own New Symphony Orchestra, and in 1909 he formed the Beecham Symphony Orchestra. Using his private fortune, in 1910 he began presenting operas at Covent Garden, Drury Lane, and other theatres. Beecham introduced London audiences to operas by Richard Strauss, Frederick Delius, and various Russian composers, and he helped bring Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes (1911) and the Russian operatic bass Feodor Chaliapin (1913) to perform in England for the first time. He founded the Beecham Opera Company in 1915, and he spent large sums to subsidize performances by various established orchestras during World War I. His musical activities earned him a knighthood in 1916.

After resolving the financial difficulties caused partly by his enormous expenditures, Beecham conducted with various orchestras in the 1920s, and in 1932 he founded the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which became a major symphony ensemble under his direction. In 1932 he also became artistic director at Covent Garden and was thus reunited with the Beecham Opera Company, which had become the British National Opera Company in 1923 and had been absorbed by Covent Garden in 1929.

During World War II Beecham toured Australia and the United States, where he conducted the Seattle Symphony (1941–44) and the Metropolitan Opera (1942–44) in New York City. He founded the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London in 1946 and continued to conduct until 1960.

Beecham’s repertory ranged from Handel to the mid-20th century, but he preferred the 18th century and was associated especially with the music of Mozart and Haydn. He also gave special attention to the music of Delius and Jean Sibelius. He was admired generally for the verve and elegance of his interpretations, and he endeared himself to the public by his witty tirades against the insufficiencies of British musical standards.

Beecham succeeded to his father’s baronetcy in 1916, and he was created a Companion of Honour in 1957. His autobiography, A Mingled Chime, was published in 1943; he also wrote a biography of Frederick Delius that appeared in 1959.