Harold Holt (3 November 1885 – 3 September 1953) was an impresario in England from the 1920s to the early 1950s, who managed many of the great names in the classical music world.
He was considered the leading concert agent of his time,[1] and was said to be "the greatest raconteur in London, who wasted away his fortune".
It included: Marian Anderson, Feodor Chaliapin, Ania Dorfmann,[6] Amelita Galli-Curci, Beniamino Gigli, Dame Joan Hammond,[7] Ida Haendel,[8] Josef Hassid,[9] Jascha Heifetz, Vladimir Horowitz, Fritz Kreisler, Dora Labbette,[10] John McCormack, Dame Nellie Melba, the young Yehudi Menuhin (in his concerts with Sir Edward Elgar),[6] Grace Moore, Vladimir de Pachmann, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Gregor Piatigorsky,[11] Rosa Ponselle, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Paul Robeson, Richard Tauber,[12] and Luisa Tetrazzini.
[9] However, Holt had made strong representations to Hassid's medical advisers that his genius was such that the world could not afford to lose him prematurely, and all must be done to cure him.
[13] The creation of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, usually attributed to its first conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, was said to have been largely the initiative of Harold Holt.