The warmly communicative podium model of James Loughran, who has died aged 92, was appreciated each in his native Scotland and in Manchester, the place he was principal conductor of the Hallé from 1971 to 1983. Many felt that his repute deserved to be greater, however he had little time for the attention-seeking gesturing or trendy advertising methods which may have raised his profile.
In 1961, on the age of 29, he gained the inaugural Philharmonia conducting competitors, whose judges included Otto Klemperer, Adrian Boult, Carlo Maria Giulini and Walter Legge, the orchestra’s founder. The award supplied a much-needed fillip for a conducting profession that had been gradual getting off the bottom. It led to him being appointed assistant conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (1962-65).
Throughout that point he additionally carried out the premiere of Malcolm Williamson’s Our Man in Havana at Sadler’s Wells (1963) with the Rostrum opera firm, returning to offer a well-received La Traviata with the resident firm and making his Covent Backyard debut with Aida (each 1964), the latter engagement bringing him to the eye of Benjamin Britten, who forthwith invited him to be music director of the English Opera Group. That collaboration was to not final lengthy, however Loughran made subsequent appearances with Scottish Opera, starting with The Gondoliers in 1968.
Then got here the appointment to the Hallé, the best problem of which was moving into the sneakers of John Barbirolli, who had carried out the orchestra with such distinction from 1943 to the yr of his demise, in 1970. Michael Kennedy, historian of the Hallé, summarised Loughran’s achievements: “He rebuilt the orchestra, attracted some good new principals, made recordings which gained virtually unanimous acclaim, gave higher prominence to the work of the Hallé choir and maintained audiences at a excessive stage.”
These recordings included a set of the Brahms symphonies on the Classics for Pleasure label, typically thought to be rating among the many best within the catalogue. He carried out steadily, too, on the summer time promenade concert events and launched quite a lot of up to date works, together with John McCabe’s The Chagall Home windows.
He additionally broadened the Hallé’s touring schedule all through Europe, together with Norway and Sweden, in addition to journeys to Hong Kong and Australia for the primary time. He can moreover be credited with elevating enjoying requirements and was appointed conductor laureate in 1983.
He had made his US debut conducting the American Bible Society’s annual profit live performance on the Philharmonic Corridor, New York, in 1972, showing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra the identical yr.
For a part of the Hallé years he held a concurrent appointment as principal conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra (1979-83) – the primary British conductor to carry a significant German orchestral submit – and subsequently in Denmark turned principal conductor of the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra (1996-2003), remaining as visitor conductor till 2011. The earlier yr he was appointed CBE.
Born in Glasgow, he was the son of Agnes (nee Teape) and her husband, additionally James. He started to conduct first at St Aloysius school after which whereas learning regulation and economics on the College of Glasgow. Following nationwide service with the RAF, he determined to pursue the potential of a musical profession in Germany, buying expertise as a répétiteur on the Bonn and Netherlands Operas and in numerous Italian homes.
Returning to Britain, he discovered employment with the Lincoln Theatre Firm, touring Jack and the Beanstalk with them to Scunthorpe, Rotherham and Loughborough, and making ready their spring 1961 manufacturing of The Boyfriend.
On the invitation of the European Broadcasting Union he recorded for radio all of the Beethoven symphonies with the London Symphony Orchestra; the cycle was broadcast by member international locations of the EBU in the course of the Beethoven bicentenary yr of 1970. Different acclaimed recordings included the Elgar Symphonies Nos 1 and a couple of, Brahms Piano Concertos Nos 1 and a couple of (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 primary recording of Havergal Brian’s tenth Symphony.
He was a preferred determine on the BBC Proms, conducting the Final Night time on 5 events and introducing Auld Lang Syne to the celebrations, within the association by Cedric Thorpe Davie, in 1979.
In 1961 he married Nancy Coggon, a speech therapist and beginner 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 participant; she died in 2021. He’s survived by Angus and two grandsons.
