HARRY RABINOWITZ 1916 - 2016

For half a century the orchestral conductor and composer Harry Rabinowitz, who has died aged 100, played a key role in the British broadcasting and film industries. He was in charge of popular and light music for both the BBC and London Weekend Television and conducted the music for more than 60 films.

Rabinowitz often said that he never wished to "waste his colleagues' time" and was opposed to over-rehearsing. Although he was highly professional, he was not a dictatorial conductor, telling an interviewer that "in almost all the sessions I've conducted, the musicians have left smiling".

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to Israel and Eva, he went to Athlone high school and the University of the Witwatersrand, where he studied the piano and composition. He was fired from his first job, as a jewellery salesman, after only one day and next found work demonstrating new songs to customers in the sheet music department of a Johannesburg store. Following a period in the South African army during the second world war, he conducted the orchestra for the musical Strike a New Note before travelling to London in 1946 to take up a place on the conducting course at the Guildhall School of Music.

With the help of the actor and comedian Sid James, a fellow South African, Rabinowitz found his feet in the British music business. He played the piano for the popular BBC radio show Variety Band-box and was a session musician at EMI's Abbey Road recording studios. His conducting career began in earnest when he was hired to work on the musical Golden City in 1950. Written by Philip Tore, the show was set in the South African gold rush of 1886. This led to work at seasonal ice shows at the Empress Hall in Earl's Court, London, and, in 1953, as musical director of the London production of Lerner and Loewe’s Broadway hit Paint Your Wagon.

Next, Rabinowitz was offered a contract to conduct the BBC Revue Orchestra. This was a house band of the Light Programme and could be heard on such shows as Variety Playhouse, Henry Hall's Guest Night and the Jimmy Edwards comedy series Take It From Here. He could also be heard as a pianist on Midday Music Hall and Piano Playtime.

In 1960, Rabinowitz was appointed music director of BBC TV light entertainment, at a time when variety and comedy shows requiring orchestral accompaniment dominated the schedules. In addition to conducting the orchestra for the Val Doonican Show, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s Not Only... But Also and many others, he composed music for The Frost Report (1966).

Rabinowitz then moved to a similar post at the newly established London Weekend Television (1968-77). There he worked on Upstairs, Downstairs (1971) and Black Beauty (1972). His theme music for Love for Lydia (1977) was nominated for an Ivor Novello award.

By now, his reputation as a conductor and arranger of popular and light music was sufficiently high for him to pursue a freelance career in theatre, films and broadcasting, where he went on to compose music for the TV series the Agatha Christie Hour (1982) and Reilly: Ace of Spies (1983). In the theatre, Rabinowitz conducted the orchestra at the premiere of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and TS Eliot musical Cats (1981) and Don Black and Lloyd Webber's Song and Dance the following year.

He was in even greater demand to work in films, in one year (1991) recording music for nine movies. His cinema credits included Chariots of Fire (1981), The Remains of the Day (1993), Howards End (1992), The English Patient (1996) and The Talented Mr Ripley (1999). His final film score assignment, at the age of 87, was Cold Mountain (2003).

Rabinowitz's renown as a conductor of film and light music spread to the US and led to seven seasons' work as guest conductor with the Boston Pops Orchestra, beginning in 1985. He also appeared at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1980s, as well as occasional concerts with the London Symphony and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras. In 1996, he conducted a concert at Carnegie Hall, New York, of music from the films of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory.

He was appointed MBE in 1977 and in 1985 received the Gold Badge of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. Last year Rabinowitz became one of the oldest guests on Desert Island Discs at the age of 99, choosing a pitch pipe as his luxury item.

In recent years, Rabinowitz divided his time between Provence and Portland, Oregon, the home town of his second wife, Mitzi Scott, whom he married in 2001. She survives him, as do three children, Karen, Simon and Lisa, from his first marriage, to Lorna Anderson, which ended in divorce, and four grandchildren.

Harry Rabinowitz, conductor and composer, born 26 March 1916; died 22 June 2016

(Obituary courtesy ofThe Guardian Newspaper)