Sir Thomas Beecham's pronouncements do not always com- mand general
assent, but in the stand he is taking in the interests of British music in the new concert-hall on the Festival of Britain site it is very hard indeed to disagree with him. Here is a new concert-hall—probably the finest in London—which will long outlast the Festival of Britain but must be regarded as playing an inseparable part in the Festival celebrations this summer. That is to say, it has an essentially British part to play. Yet the supreme attraction in the opening week was to be Signor Toscanini—was to be, because apparently his health will prevent him from coming. No one would doubt the magni- tude of the attraction, or the desirability of securing a foreigner of the eminence of Toscanini at a later stage of the Festival. But when Sir Thomas says: "Here was a priceless opportunity of spectacular representation of the best English music of the last 250 years, from Purcell to Vaughan Williams "—in the opening week—it is hard to conceive why anyone ever took any other view. I hope earnestly that it is not too late to change Sir Thomas's " was " to " is."
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