Saturday 9 April 2016

Beecham and the Aintree weekend

I have to rely on my memory for this Beecham quote, because I can't find it on the Web. It goes something like this: Sir Thomas Beecham, who had a great rapport with orchestras, was conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic during the annual festival of racing over the jumps. The weather was warm and the programme, already a long one, was topped by Schubert's Great C Major symphony famous for taking nearly an hour to perform. Realising that the players would be flagging and a little resentful, he encouraged them from the rostrum: "Now, gentlemen, for the Grand National".


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