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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Thomas Beecham
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(1879–1961, kt 1916, 2nd bt 1916) Conductor, famous for high musical standards combined with a caustic wit from the podium, and founder of two of Britain's leading orchestras, the *London Philharmonic and the *Royal Philharmonic. He spent his own fortune (deriving from *Beecham's pills) to promote music. In 1909 he founded the Beecham Symphony Orchestra, but his first major enterprise was an opera season at Covent Garden in 1910. In this he conducted the English premieres of Richard Strauss's Salome and Elektra and of A Village Romeo and Juliet by *Delius, of whom he was a passionate supporter and eventually, in 1958, the biographer.
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