James Loughran 1931-2024

[pastoralguy]

He was known in the profession as ‘sweaty Jimmy’ due to his propensity to perspire! It was said that the front desk of strings were issued with umbrellas!

[oliver sudden]

We have an LP of him conducting the Symphonie Fantastique with the Hallé. What I recall about it is that the disc has the most tasteless sleeve artwork of any in our collection.

Good lord, I see what you mean!

[mopsus]

It's the sort of thing you might have seen on an Athena poster of the time (late 70s). I notice that if you look at the Discogs page for that recording it is censored 'due to content' although it appears uncensored on Discog's pages of search results.

[Pulcinella]

Good lord, I see what you mean!

Do tell, as the discogs site has hidden it!

https://www.discogs.com/release/3849401-Berlioz-Hallé-Orchestra-James-Loughran-Symphonie-Fantastique

Ah! It's on Amazon though.
Probably best to let others do their own searching, but it surely doesn't really need to have been censored, does it?

PS: mopsus just beat me to it!

[silvestrione]

I grew up in Bournemouth, where Silvestri made every concert an event, and galvanised the orchestra in extraordinary ways, so that for me, a schoolboy, poor old JL didn't cut the mustard. My loss of course, though I do remember a startling performance of Shostakovich 5, new to me at the time, and a memorable Dvorak 9, and some Henze! Though what the Henze was I don't now know. Coolly received by the Bournemouth audience...

Edit: JL was of course Assistant Conductor there (his first appointment?), before going on to one of the BBC orchestras, and then the Halle.

[MickyD]

Just seen on Amazon that the CFP LPs of the Brahms symphonies are fetching outrageous prices!

[Historian]

Just seen on Amazon that the CFP LPs of the Brahms symphonies are fetching outrageous prices!

Grew up on them (as mentioned upthread by someone else). Never saw him live as he was in the wrong part of the country and then worked abroad.

[MickyD]

I remember having them on cassette in my old Morris 1300!

[CallMePaul]

Most of his Hallé recordings are not available on Presto. The Brahms piano concerti with John Lill are a Presto CD and there is a download of Viennese music available, but that is all. I don't know who has the rights to CfP or Enigma recordings, but perhaps whoever does have them could consider reissues?

[Barbirollians]

CfP are Warner recordings now surely.

[hmvman]

Like many others here I have the CfP set of Brahms symphonies which has been enjoyed for many years. Can't play it just now as I'm away from home.

RIP James Loughran

[Barbirollians]

I've been doing exactly the same this evening – again with the Brahms cycle. I went to so many Loughran concerts during my student years in Manchester – they were a very mixed bag, but the best of them were thrilling.

I suspect ,having listened to it a couple of times over the last couple of days that Brahms 3 would have taken pretty high rank in your recent BAL had it not been deleted

[makropulos]

I suspect ,having listened to it a couple of times over the last couple of days that Brahms 3 would have taken pretty high rank in your recent BAL had it not been deleted

Yes – it may well have done – it's a very strong performance which certainly deserves to be restored to the catalogue.
I've just pulled out another Loughran/Hallé recording that I haven't heard for ages: John McCabe's Chagall Windows. Looking forward to listening to that (and the rest of the disc, which is more McCabe from Frémaux and the CBSO).

[Keraulophone]

Another very welcome CFP release from Hallé/Loughran was Rachmaninoff 2. It appeared in 1974 when this impecunious sixth-former couldn’t afford the LSO/Previn that everyone was raving about.

Wasn’t JL responsible for introducing Auld Lang Syne at the close of the Last Night of the Proms? I do remember him vainly trying to educate the promenaders in the correct Scots pronunciation of ‘syne’ with an S rather than the Zyne they were used to singing.

[Pulcinella]

Yes – it may well have done – it's a very strong performance which certainly deserves to be restored to the catalogue.
I've just pulled out another Loughran/Hallé recording that I haven't heard for ages: John McCabe's Chagall Windows. Looking forward to listening to that (and the rest of the disc, which is more McCabe from Frémaux and the CBSO).

Thanks for the reminder: I'd completely forgotten that.