Bertram Bradshaw
Portsmouth Evening News 20th January 1962, Conductor of Choral Union dies.
Conductor of the Portsmouth Choral Union for nearly 30 years, and musical director of the Portsmouth Players, Mr. Bertram Bradshaw, was found dead in his bed today at his lodgings, 90, Wadham Road, North End. Mr. Bradshaw, who was aged about 58, had been rehearsing last night with the Portsmouth Players for whose forthcoming productions, The Boy Friend and "Desert Song" he was to have been the Ieading pianist. Before that he had been teaching all day at the Northern Grammar School for Boys where he had been a master for many years.
Portsmouth Evening News 27th January 1962. Appreciation of Mr. Bradshaw
AS a fellow conductor and contemporary with. the late Bertram Bradshaw, I must pay tribute to the magnificent; work he performed with the Portsmouth Choral Union and the Portsmouth Players.
The value of the contribution he made to the musical Iife, of the city cannot adequately be assessed. It was tremendous.
He has certainly enriched it through his great talent. He spent his years without stint to give pleasure both to his colleagues and to those who gathered to hear the outstanding concerts he gave, or to witness his colourful tuneful productions.
Portsmouth Evening News 27th January 1962.
Ten Prefects at funeral of Mr. B Bradshaw
Ten Portsmouth Northern Grammar School prefects attended the funeral of one of masters. Mr. Bertram Bradshaw, held at St Mark's Church, Portsmouth, Yesterday.
Representatives of virtually every Portsmouth musical organization were among the congregation.
Extract from"Portsmouth Choral Union 1880-2005 One Hundred and Twenty Five Years of Music Making"Shortly before this in 1926, Portsmouth's Northern Grammar School appointed Bertram Bradshaw to teach music and French and he quickly made an impression on the musical life of the city, becoming conductor of a choral society in Cosham soon after his arrival. In 1932 he took on two more positions musical director of the Portsmouth Players and conductor of Portsmouth Choral Union (PCU).Bertram Bradshaw occupied a position of similar stature for musical achievement within the PCU to that of Green. He was conductor until 1962 when his sudden death occurred, and amid the tributes paid to his memory was "the members of the choir will always be grateful to him ...for introducing them to more and more major works of the great composers as time passed". He was responsible for developing the PCU into a form of the orthodox urban choral society made famous by those of Huddersfield, Glasgow and other cities. During his conductorship the choir was highly successful in local festivals, an aspect of choral society practice more common then than now. On one occasion the PCU had the opportunity of experiencing the conducting technique of the renowned Sir Hugh Roberton as guest conductor and he "extracted the last note of volume and feeling from each voice" in unaccompanied part-singing. One of the items the choir sang was Stanford's The Blue Bird (still part of PCU repertoire) and after the interval "broke into blatant modernism," with Constant Lambert's Rio Grande, then a very new work indeed. While Bradshaw continued the tradition of the Messiah performances in the Town Hall, later the Guildhall, every Good Friday, he introduced a new and very popular annual Christmas concert, the first of which took place in the Guildhall in 1935. He included a boys' choir from the Northern Grammar School and a children's choir has been a feature of PCU's concerts ever since. Bradshaw's own rather derogatory comment about the Christmas concert is significant. "The carol concert, enjoyable as it always is, is the least meritorious of our efforts, but draws splendid public support ..(it is) our main financial means of existence." This reflects Bradshaw's own concern with developing the artistic side of performance (he was proud to have been responsible for a number of first performances in the city) and also the way in which the choir had moved away from its evangelistic origins into the world where art must compete in the market. Bradshaw exercised a well thought out policy of subsidising his more prestigious but less popular artistic ventures, which included Berlioz's Childhood of Christ, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and concert performances of Verdi's Aida and Nabucco. They were subsidised with such items as the carol concerts and fundraising events, Arts Council and National Federation of Music Societies' grants, and a new venture of fees for broadcasting (20 guineas a time). From 1945 onwards Bradshaw represented PCU on the Southern Region of NFMS; he was in 1957 elected chairman and he was chosen by the Southern Region to represent them on the Central Council in 1961. As a frequent concert-goer in Portsmouth and London, Bradshaw took the opportunity to hear both new and established singers, who were often invited to sing with the PCU as a result. Artists appearing between 1933 and 1962 included Elsie Suddaby, Isobel Baillie, Amy Shuard, Marion Studholme, Wilfred Brown and, in 1958, Janet Baker who sang the Angel in Elgar's Dream of Gerontius. This performance marked the 100th occasion on which Bradshaw had conducted the choir and was, as the News reported, "a splendid tribute to the skill and enthusiasm of Bertram Bradshaw". As far as possible the choir continued to function during the Second World War and Bradshaw was helped in the conducting by John Davison, another well known name in Portsmouth music. "Eastertide in Portsmouth would hardly be complete without the rendering of Handel's Messiah by the Portsmouth Choral Union," wrote the News in 1940. When the choir reformed after the war it had lost both its rehearsal home at Lake Road Baptist Church and its main concert venue, the Guildhall. The rehearsals were first held in the Ebenezer Methodist Church, Twyford Avenue and, as the membership increased, this was changed to various schools and college halls in the city. Concerts were given in schools and churches and the old Coliseum, Edinburgh Road, until 1959 when the rebuilt Guildhall was opened. The PCU gave the final concert of the Royal Opening week with its 67th performance of the Messiah. The Guildhall had been enlarged to its present size and the PCU sang Messiah to its biggest audience ever with every seat full. Bach's St. Matthew Passion was one of the great works of choral repertoire which Bradshaw introduced to the choir, and it was a performance of this work that was sung in the Guildhall as a memorial to him on 8th April 1962. Bradshaw's memory is celebrated in other ways, too. The Bradshaw vase, an inscribed silver rose-bowl, was accepted by the City Council as a contribution to the corporate plate, and is exhibited on the platform as part of the stage decorations in Guildhall concerts. In 1965 the Bradshaw memorial fund contributions bought Carols for Choirs Volume 1 for the PCU. It is fitting that the choir is never far removed from one of its most influential conductors.
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