Gramophone: no substitute for live performance

British conductor Thomas Beecham was not too impressed with early recording technology (the gramophone):

It was put to him that for people who lived in remote districts, far from orchestral concerts, the gramophone was an alternative:
"It is no alternative to this," he said, waving his arm towards the hall, where the orchestra was waiting for him.  "if people cannot get decent musical food, that is no reason why you should give them poison.  Rather, than wireless or a gramophone, take prussic acid at once."


Incidentally, Beecham had actually made recordings before and after the period of this statement.

The Musical Times, January 1927.  Cited in: Scholes, Percy (1947) The Mirror of Music: 1844-1944.  London: Novello, p. 791.

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