6 Comments

1. 

   Monica McCabe on June 30, 2023 at 10:42 am

   Happy Birthday to Jimmy, now sadly in a home as I understand it. He was a lovely, ebullient man, and a fine, much under-rated conductor. John and I spent many happy times with him and the Halle – also GM Clive Smart, and Orchestral Manager Stuart Robinson – all of them sadly mistreated at the end. (Though Stuart proved to be indispensable, and still works with the Halle as an archivist.) I am still in touch with Stuart, who seems to be fit and well, and enjoys his golf.

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     pjl on June 30, 2023 at 6:11 pm

     His concerts were my introduction to great music; he is rather unfairly forgotten now but his Brahms and Beethoven were special. Very fond memories of the premiere of John’s CHAGALL WINDOWS with a documentary and performance on ITV as well as the LP coupled with his great Hartmann Variations, once played at the last night of the Halle Proms, when they had 2 weeks of proper concerts (all film and Abba now…)

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2. 

   Edward Clark on June 30, 2023 at 4:27 pm

   I never met our birthday boy but cherish some recordings from his Halle days. His Brahms cycle remains a favourite and his Berlioz overtures still give me a lot of pleasure. Best of all is perhaps his warm Rach 2.
   Long may up live Maestro and enjoy your birthday .

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3. 

   Ates Orga on June 30, 2023 at 8:15 pm

   Jimmy Loughran’s landmark bicentenary Beethoven symphony cycle with the London Symphony Orchestra, produced by Robert Simpson and broadcast in four monthly programmes between January and April 1970 – “performed with an orchestra of the size
   Beethoven knew” – was one of my key formative experiences. The Ninth featured a solo quartet comprising Margaret Price, Sybil Michelow, John Mitchinson and Don Garrard. John Boyden subsequently produced the cycle with the Hallé for Enigma. Later still Alan Booth at Collins Classics got Jimmy to remake Pastoral with the LPO, released in 1989. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkeoRbS9coA&t=1473s

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4. 

   Monica McCabe on July 1, 2023 at 11:51 am

   Dear PLJ, Thank you so much for your very kind words. I remember the making of the GTV film, and the crying baby in a nearby garden. I asked anxiously whether this would sound on the film, and was assured it wouldn’t – but it did, and for years afterwards people would ask me about my (neglected) baby. Jimmy did a brilliant CHAGALL WINDOWS, and had it fully under his belt. The real knock-out one, however, was under Haitink with the LPO – also with the Concerto for Orchestra/Solti and an Arnold work, all live performances, and hopefully still available on an LPO own CD issue.

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     pjl on July 1, 2023 at 6:25 pm

     thanks Monica; I have the Haitink; very intelligent of him to discover this masterpiece and great to have it on cd

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