Many Happy Returns to James Loughran, 92 today. Conducts Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture with Sydney Symphony Orchestra; July 19, 1984.
Jun 30, 2023 | News, Videos | 6 comments

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