Thomas Beecham

"Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory."

"The musical equivalent of the towers of St Pancras Station"

"Asked if he had ever conducted any Stockhausen, he said, "No, but I once trod in some.""

"Too much counterpoint; what is worse, Protestant counterpoint."

"A musicologist is a man who can read music but can't hear it."

"The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought."

"What can you do with it? It's like a lot of yaks jumping about.""

"I found it as alluring as a wayward woman and determined to tame it."

"The grand tune is the only thing in music that the great public really understands."

"If I cannot sing a work, I cannot conduct it."

"A city life for me!"

"No composer has written as much as 100 bars of worthwhile music since 1925."