Jacqueline du Pré
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Jacqueline du Pré | ||
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 Jacqueline du Pré with the 'Davidov' Stradivarius and Daniel Barenboim
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Jacqueline Mary du Pré | |
| Born | January 26, 1945, Oxford, England | |
| Died | October 19, 1987, London, England | |
| Genre(s) | Classical Music | |
| Occupation(s) | Cellist | |
| Instrument(s) | Cello | |
| Notable instrument(s) | ||
| Cello |
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Jacqueline Mary du Pré OBE (January 26, 1945 – October 19, 1987) was an English cellist.
Born in Oxford, Jacqueline du Pré is acknowledged to have been one of the greatest cellists in the world. She had a successful career until the onset of multiple sclerosis which eventually contributed to her tragically early death.
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[edit] Early years
The middle child of an upper middle-class, cultured family (her father Derek du Pré was an accountant and her mother Iris a pianist), Jacqueline du Pré was 4 years old when she heard the cello for the first time, on the radio. From then on the sound of the instrument never left her life, starting with lessons from her mother Iris du Pré. Two years later, she started receiving lessons at the London Violoncello School and entering music competitions alongside her sister Hilary. By the age of twelve she was performing in concerts for the BBC in London. She studied with William Pleeth in London from the age of 10 until 16 (from 1955 to 1961), participated in a Pablo Casals masterclass in Switzerland in 1960, with Paul Tortelier in Paris in 1962, and with Rostropovich in Russia in 1966.
[edit] Career
Du Pré made her formal debut in March 1961 at the prestigious Wigmore Hall in London, and made her concerto début in 1962 at the Royal Festival Hall playing Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Rudolf Schwarz. She made her Proms début in 1963 playing the Elgar concerto again, this time with Sir Malcolm Sargent. Her performance of the Elgar proved so popular that she subsequently returned to play the concerto three years in succession. Du Pré became a favourite at the Proms soon after and played in the British festival almost every year until 1969.
In 1965, at the age of 20, she recorded the Elgar Concerto for EMI with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir John Barbirolli, which brought her international recognition, and which has become the benchmark reference for the work. The recording has never been out of print since its release over forty years ago. Incidentally she performed the Elgar for her début in the United States, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Antal Dorati at Carnegie Hall on May 14 1965.
Throughout her career, du Pré performed with the most prestigious orchestras and conductors, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, New Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. She regularly performed with conductors such as Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Adrian Boult, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, and Leonard Bernstein.
Jacqueline du Pré played two Stradivarius cellos — a 1672 cello and the 1712 Davydov Stradivarius — both instruments were given to her by her godmother, Ismena Holland. She used the 1672 Stradivari until 1964. In that same year she acquired the "Davydov", which she used until 1969, and on which many of her most famous recordings were made, including the Elgar Concerto with Barbirolli, Schumann Cello Concerto with Barenboim and the two Brahms Cello Sonatas. From 1969 to 1970 du Pré played on a Francesco Goffriller cello, and in November 1970 purchased a new instrument from the Philadelphia violin maker Sergio Peresson. She used it for the rest of her performing career until 1973, and it is the Peresson that was used in the 1970 live recording of the Elgar Concerto, and in the recording of the Chopin and Franck sonatas made in 1971.
Her friendship with musicians Yehudi Menuhin, Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, and Pinchas Zukerman, and marriage to Daniel Barenboim, led to many chamber music performances, and the 1969 performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London of the Schubert Piano Quintet (the "Trout"), also resulted in a film, made by Christopher Nupen. Nupen made other films featuring du Pré; "Jacqueline", a 1967 documentary with a live performance of the Elgar Concerto, and the "Ghost", with Daniel Barenboim and Pinchas Zukerman in a performance of the Beethoven Op. 70, No. 1 D Major Piano Trio.
[edit] Awards
Du Pré received several fellowships from music academies and honorary doctorate degrees from Universities, as an acknowledgment of her talent. She was the first and youngest recipients of the prestigious Guilhermina Suggia Award, at age ten. In 1960, she won the gold medal of the Guildhall School of Music in London and the Queen's Prize for British musicians. She was created an OBE in 1976.
[edit] Marriage
Jacqueline met pianist Daniel Barenboim at Christmas in 1966. Their marriage in June 1967, after the Six-Day War in Israel, for which she converted to Judaism, later brought about one of the most fruitful relationships in the world of music; some commentators have compared this musical marriage to that of Clara and Robert Schumann. This was evidenced by the many performances of du Pré with Barenboim as either a pianist or orchestral conductor.
Jacqueline's sister, Hilary, was married to the conductor, Christopher "Kiffer" Finzi, with whom Jacqueline had an affair. According to Hilary and her brother Piers in their book A Genius in the Family (released in America as Hilary and Jackie), the affair was conducted with Hilary's consent as a way of helping Jacqueline through a near–nervous breakdown, during which she exhibited suicidal behavior. Reportedly, Jackie begged Hilary to sleep with Kiffer as a way of living a simple life away from celebrity. In 1999 Clare Finzi, the daughter of Kiffer and Hilary, publicly criticised her mother's account and laid out a different version of events, in which her father was a serial adulterer who seduced her emotionally vulnerable aunt in a time of great need in order to gratify his own ego.
Anand Tucker's film Hilary and Jackie (1998) is based on A Genius in the Family, and features Emily Watson as du Pré.
[edit] The disease
In 1971, Jacqueline du Pré's playing began an irreversible decline when the artist began to lose sensitivity in her fingers, as well as in other parts of her body.
She took a sabbatical in 1971 until 1972, recording her last studio album of sonatas by Chopin and Franck in December 1971. Although she did perform during her sabbatical, they were very rare occurrences.
In 1973 du Pré resumed her concert activities, but by this time, the symptoms had become severe. In January 1973 she toured North America and Canada, and some of the concert reviews from that period were less than complimentary. It was an indication that her condition had worsened, although there were moments of brief respite from the symptoms, during which she played without noticeable problems. She performed the Elgar concerto for her last London concerts in February 1973 with Zubin Mehta and the New Philharmonia Orchestra.
Her last public concerts were in New York in February 1973, where she was scheduled for 4 performances of the Brahms Double Concerto with Pinchas Zukerman, and Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic. Du Pré later recalled that she had problems judging the weight of the bow, and even opening the cello case had become difficult. As she had lost sensation in her fingers, she had to rely visually, to know where she had to play on the fingerboard. Although she managed three of the four dates, she canceled the last performance (Isaac Stern replaced du Pré, performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto).
In October 1973 multiple sclerosis was diagnosed, the disease that caused her health to deteriorate until her death in London on October 19, 1987, at the age of 42.
She left her Davydov Stradivarius to Yo-Yo Ma, while Lynn Harrell acquired the 1673 Stradivarius (which he named the 'du Pré' Stradivarius as a tribute to the cellist).
After du Pré's death, an English rose was subsequently named after her.
[edit] Further reading
- Jacqueline du Pré: Her Life, Her Music, Her Legend, by Elizabeth Wilson. Publisher: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0571200176
- Jacqueline du Pré: A Biography, by Carol Easton, published by Da Capo Press (October 2000), ISBN 0306809761
- A Genius in the Family: Intimate Memoir of Jacqueline du Pré, by Hilary du Pre and Piers du Pre. ISBN 1856197530. (Since the 1998 film, this book is also published under the title: Hilary and Jackie.)
[edit] On DVD
- Remembering Jacqueline Du Pre(1994), directed by Christopher Nupen
- Jacqueline du Pre In Portrait (2004), directed by Christopher Nupen
- Hilary and Jackie (1998), dramatised portrait directed by Anand Tucker
