Grand Masters of the Cello IV

It has been a busy day for me already as is typical of a payday.  However I do have some great stuff lined up for you as we continue this week's series on the Grand Masters of the Cello.  Today's Grand Master is the only female among our Elite Musical Artists this week whose career was but a brief shining moment before Multiple Sclerosis stilled her voice.  Jacqueline du Pré was an English cellist. At a young age, she achieved enduring mainstream popularity unusual for a classical performer.  Despite her short career, she is regarded as one of the more uniquely talented cellists of the second half of the twentieth century.  Du Pré is most famous for her iconic recording of Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor, her interpretation of which has been described as "definitive" and "legendary".  

From an early age, du Pré was entering and winning local music competitions alongside her sister, flautist Hilary du Pré.  In 1959 she began appearing at children's and young musicians' concerts, including with fellow students at the Guildhall end-of-term concert in March, followed by an appearance on BBC Television, playing the Lalo Cello Concerto.  

She started studying with the renowned cellist William Pleeth at age ten, won the Gold Medal of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at 15, and studied with Pablo Casals at a master class held in Zermatt, Switzerland, before being taught by both Paul Tortelier and Mstislav Rostropovich.  In 1961, she made her formal debut at the age of 16 at London’s Wigmore Hall. She followed that the next year with her debut at the Royal Festival Hall playing the Elgar Cello Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Rudolf Schwarz. She soon became an international soloist.

Raymond Ericson, reviewing a 1965 performance of the Elgar work for The Times, observed that ''Miss du Pre and the concerto seemed made for each other, because her playing was so completely imbued with the romantic spirit.  Her tone was sizable and beautifully burnished. Her technique was virtually flawless, whether she was playing the sweeping chords that open the concerto, sustaining a ravishing pianissimo tone, or keeping the fast repeated note figures in the scherzo going at an even pace.''

 

In 1966 she met Argentinian Pianist/Conductor Daniel Barenboim at the home of a mutual friend in December.  Instead of saying 'hello or good evening, they sat down and played the Brahms Cello Sonata in F Major.  They were immediately taken with each other and soon fell in love.  In 1967 Jackie followed Daniel to Israel just prior to the 6 Day War.  Daniel and Jackie gave a series of concerts prior to the war and a celebration concert afterwards.  It was a time of great joy for them, so Jackie converted to Judaism and they married during the victory celebrations.  

They became the celebrated couple in classical music circles, touring and concertizing with much success.  The first recordings the couple made together in 1967 were the Haydn C major and Boccherini cello concertos. “She had a capacity to imagine sound such as I never met in any other musician,” Barenboim has written. “She was really a child of nature—a musician of nature with an unerring instinct.” 

The effect on the British public of this impossibly romantic, classical-music soap opera was total—the relationship turned the two stars into the golden couple of the musical world of their day. When doctors diagnosed her with multiple sclerosis in 1972, a year after she had begun to lose feeling in her fingers at age 26, the public’s devastation and sorrow ran deep.  Her last public concerts took place in New York in February 1973, completing three of four scheduled performances of the Brahms Double Concerto with Pinchas Zukerman and Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic.  Isaac Stern stepped in to cover that last cancelled concert, performing Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.  “My hands no longer worked,” she said in a 1978 interview. “I simply couldn’t feel the strings.”

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, in conjunction with the Jacqueline du Pré Research Fund, presented several benefit concerts for du Pré at Carnegie Hall.  Participants included violinist Pinchas Zukerman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Eugene Istomin, and several others.  In his review in the New York Times of a 1980 benefit concert, John Rockwell wrote: “The consistently high quality of these particular benefits can be traced to the close professional and social circle in which Miss du Pré and her husband move.  They know the best, and the best play at their benefits.”  

Miss du Pré died an untimely death at the age of 42  in 1987.  In her obituary, the Times noted that throughout her illness, du Pré remained sanguine about the future. “Nobody knows if I’ll ever regain mobility,” she had said in 1978. “It could be that next week I’ll find myself walking down the road. I believe in realistic optimism, but not wishful thinking.”  

The video presentation today was mostly filmed in 1967, then re edited with additional footage and commentary in 1982.  The film, Jacqueline du  Pré and the Elgar Concerto, is a terrific look at the life and music of Jackie.  It is obvious from the film that Daniel and Jackie were hopelessly in love with each other and their respective talents.  She was but a candle in the wind, but oh what a beautiful candle she was.  The film includes a full performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto with Barenboim conducting.  The companion piece for today over on my tumblr is the Suites for Solo Cello I & II by Johann Sebastian Bach recorded in 1962 when Jackie was just 17 and already a powerhouse in the world of classical music. 

** The New York Times, Wikipedia & All Things Strings all contributed to this post **

Then your visual edification will be enhanced when you cruise these Men In Jeans down below and the Hottie of the Day! over on my tumblr.   Tune in tomorrow to see who is our next Grand Master of the Cello.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!