Thomas Beecham: An Obsession with Music
Researched Bibliographic Dossier
Verified edition data and a musicological research note prepared specifically for this work.
- Title
- Thomas Beecham: An Obsession with Music
- Author
- John Lucas
- Subject
- Conductor: Sir Thomas Beecham
- Publisher
- Boydell Press
- Place
- Woodbridge
- Year
- 2008
- Language
- English
- Type
- Conductor biography
- Extent
- 416 pages
- ISBN
- 1843834022
SCOPE & CONTENT
This biography documents the career and artistic profile of Sir Thomas Beecham, placing conducting practice, institutional appointments, repertoire, rehearsals, recordings and professional networks within a chronological life narrative. It is particularly useful for reconstructing how twentieth-century orchestral culture was shaped by individual conductors and by the ensembles, opera houses and recording institutions with which they worked.
RESEARCH VALUE
For research on conducting, the dossier emphasizes evidence about rehearsal method, orchestral discipline, programming, interpretive priorities, relationships with soloists and singers, and the recorded legacy. Where the author relied on interviews or memoir testimony, those passages are best compared with correspondence, orchestra archives and contemporary reviews; this distinction between testimony and independently documented fact is noted as part of the work’s historiographical value.
CAREER AND INSTITUTIONS
The record is designed to make appointments, orchestral affiliations, opera work, tours and major career transitions searchable together with the conductor’s name, including common shortened title and surname variants.
INTERPRETIVE AND DOCUMENTARY VALUE
The book is treated not merely as a life story but as evidence for performance history. Its usefulness lies in connecting biographical chronology with rehearsal practice, repertoire choices, recording activity and contemporary reception.
- Catalogue completeness
- 8 / 10 core bibliographic fields