The warmly communicative podium style of James Loughran, who has died aged 92, was appreciated both in his native Scotland and in Manchester, where he was principal conductor of the Hallé from 1971 to 1983. Many felt that his reputation deserved to be higher, but he had little time for the attention-seeking gesturing or modern marketing techniques that might have raised his profile.
In 1961, at the age of 29, he won the inaugural Philharmonia conducting competition, whose judges included Otto Klemperer, Adrian Boult, Carlo Maria Giulini and Walter Legge, the orchestra’s founder. The award provided a much-needed fillip for a conducting career that had been slow getting off the ground. It led to him being appointed assistant conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (1962-65).
During that time he also conducted the premiere of Malcolm Williamson’s Our Man in Havana at Sadler’s Wells (1963) with the Rostrum opera company, returning to give a well-received La Traviata with the resident company and making his Covent Garden debut with Aida (both 1964), the latter engagement bringing him to the attention of Benjamin Britten, who forthwith invited him to be music director of the English Opera Group. That collaboration was not to last long, but Loughran made subsequent appearances with Scottish Opera, beginning with The Gondoliers in 1968.
Then came the appointment to the Hallé, the greatest challenge of which was stepping into the shoes of John Barbirolli, who had conducted the orchestra with such distinction from 1943 to the year of his death, in 1970. Michael Kennedy, historian of the Hallé, summarised Loughran’s achievements: “He rebuilt the orchestra, attracted some brilliant new principals, made recordings which won almost unanimous acclaim, gave greater prominence to the work of the Hallé choir and maintained audiences at a high level.”
Those recordings included a set of the Brahms symphonies on the Classics for Pleasure label, generally regarded as ranking among the finest in the catalogue. He conducted frequently, too, at the summer promenade concerts and introduced a number of contemporary works, including John McCabe’s The Chagall Windows.
He also broadened the Hallé’s touring schedule throughout Europe, including Norway and Sweden, as well as trips to Hong Kong and Australia for the first time. He can additionally be credited with raising playing standards and was appointed conductor laureate in 1983.
He had made his US debut conducting the American Bible Society’s annual benefit concert at the Philharmonic Hall, New York, in 1972, appearing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra the same year.
For part of the Hallé years he held a concurrent appointment as principal conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra (1979-83) – the first British conductor to hold a major German orchestral post – and subsequently in Denmark became principal conductor of the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra (1996-2003), remaining as guest conductor until 2011. The previous year he was appointed CBE.
Born in Glasgow, he was the son of Agnes (nee Teape) and her husband, also James. He began to conduct first at St Aloysius college and then while studying law and economics at the University of Glasgow. Following national service with the RAF, he decided to pursue the possibility of a musical career in Germany, acquiring experience as a répétiteur at the Bonn and Netherlands Operas and in various Italian houses.
Returning to Britain, he found employment with the Lincoln Theatre Company, touring Jack and the Beanstalk with them to Scunthorpe, Rotherham and Loughborough, and preparing their spring 1961 production of The Boyfriend.
At the invitation of the European Broadcasting Union he recorded for radio all the Beethoven symphonies with the London Symphony Orchestra; the cycle was broadcast by member countries of the EBU during the Beethoven bicentenary year of 1970. Other acclaimed recordings included the Elgar Symphonies Nos 1 and 2, Brahms Piano Concertos Nos 1 and 2 (with John Lill), Saint-Saëns Piano Concertos Nos 2 and 4 (with Idil Biret), Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony, The Planets, Belshazzar’s Feast and the first recording of Havergal Brian’s 10th Symphony.
He was a popular figure at the BBC Proms, conducting the Last Night on five occasions and introducing Auld Lang Syne to the celebrations, in the arrangement by Cedric Thorpe Davie, in 1979.
In 1961 he married Nancy Coggon, a speech therapist and amateur musician, with whom he had two sons, Angus and Charles, the latter predeceasing him. They divorced in 1983, and two years later he married Ludmila Navratil, a viola player; she died in 2021. He is survived by Angus and two grandsons.
• James Loughran, conductor, born 30 June 1931; died 19 June 2024
