Bernard Shore

Bernard Shore (17 March 1896 – 2 April 1985) was an English viola player and author.

Shore studied at the Royal College of Music from 1912, with Sir Walter Alcock (organ), Arthur Bent (viola) and Thomas Dunhill (composition), but his time there was interrupted by the war.[1] Returning after 1918 with an injured right hand - he had lost two fingers[2] - Shore focused on viola playing rather than the organ, becoming a pupil of Lionel Tertis. From 1922 on he was an orchestral player, first with the Queen’s Hall Orchestra under Henry Wood and (from 1930) as principal viola of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. There is an HMV Treasury recording of a performance of Elgar's Introduction and Allegro with the orchestra, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult with Shore as part of the solo quartet. It was recorded on 24 March 1937.[3] He sometimes also played with the Spencer Dyke Quartet.[4]

As a soloist, Shore made his first appearance at the BBC Proms on 23 September 1926, giving the first London performance of Gordon Jacob's Viola Concerto No 1.[5] On 27 August 1931 he played Flos Campi by Vaughan Williams at a Prom.[6] Premieres of British music included Philip Sainton's Serenade Fantastique in 1936, and (with Albert Sammons) Stanley Wilson's Concerto for Violin and Viola in 1937. He also commissioned Christian Darnton's Viola Concerto, and gave its first performance on 15 April 1936.[7] With Eda Kersey he premiered Arthur Benjamin's Romantic Fantasy for violin, viola and orchestra on 24 March 1938 at a Royal Philharmonic Society concert, with Benjamin conducting.[8]

Shore retained great affection for Lionel Tertis, and on 18 March 1934 the two came together in a broadcast to play an adaption by Tertis of the Bach Brandenburg Concerto No 6 in Bb with two solo violas.[9] By 1937 Tertis was finding he could no longer play to the standards he set himself, so he sold his beloved 1717 Montagnana viola to Shore.[10] Shore eventually passed the viola on to his own pupil, Roger Chase.[11]

In 1937 Shore wrote a book, The Orchestra Speaks, which arose out of his experience of orchestral playing. It discusses the inner workings of an orchestra and also includes a collection of character sketches of conductors of the time, including Thomas Beecham, Adrian Boult, Malcolm Sargent, Henry Wood, Eugene Goossens and Hamilton Harty. In 1947 he wrote a second book, Sixteen Symphonies, discussing symphonies from Haydn to Walton. Shore was also an occasional composer of songs and instrumental pieces. His 1933 Scherzo for viola, published in 1933, has been recorded by Roger Chase.[12]

Following the second world war, Shore retired from the BBC Symphony Orchestra, took on a professorship at the Royal College of Music, and from 1948 acted as a staff inspector of schools. The Sons of Light, a cantata for chorus and orchestra (1950) by Vaughan Williams, was commissioned by the Schools Music Association where Shore was an inspector there. The work is dedicated to him.[13] After Vaughan Williams' death in 1958 the previously unknown Romance for viola and piano was found amongst his papers. Shore gave the premiere of the piece on 19 January 1962.

Shore was made a CBE in 1955. During the 1960s and 1970s he was involved in the Rural Music Schools Association and taught at the Northern School of Music and various summer schools. In August 1980, Shore was involved in the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and Workshop on the Isle of Man, which commissioned Gordon Jacob's Viola Concerto No 2 as a test piece.[14] The winner of the competition, the 19 year old American Paul Neubauer, gave the first public performance in 1981 as part of his prize.[15] Bernard Shore died, aged 89, at the Dulas Court care home in Hereford.[16]

References
  1. Forbes, Elizabeth. Shore, Bernard, Oxford Music Online, 2001
  2. Musical Times, No 1709, July 1985, p 425
  3. Boult conducts Elgar - Introduction & Allegro - 1937
  4. Gordon Jacob, String Quartet in C. Radio Times Issue 291, 28 April 1929, p 45
  5. BBC Proms performance archive
  6. Radio Times Issue 412, 23 August 1931, p 42
  7. Radio Times Issue 654, 12 April 1936, p 42
  8. David C F Wright, Eda Kersey
  9. Sunday Orchestral Concert,Radio Times Issue 546, 18 March 1934, p 23
  10. Tertis, Lionel. My Viola and I, a Complete Autobiography, 1974
  11. Strauss, Elaine. A Little Respect to the Once Neglected Viola (2007)
  12. The Virtuoso Viola, Naxos 8.572293 (2010), reviewed by MusicWeb International
  13. Barnett, Rob. Review of Sons of Light at MusicWeb International, 2010
  14. Front Matter. Musical Times No 1641, November 1979, p 888
  15. Gordon Jacob: Complete Music for Viola and Orchestra, reviewed by MusicWeb International
  16. The Times, 10 April 1985, p 26
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