Jacqueline du Pré

Jacqueline du Pré

Jacqueline du Pré with the Davydov Stradivarius and Daniel Barenboim
Background information
Birth name Jacqueline Mary du Pré
Born 26 January 1945(1945-01-26)
Oxford, England, UK
Died 19 October 1987 (aged 42)
London, England, UK
Genre(s) Classical
Occupation(s) Cellist
Instrument(s) Violoncello
Years active fl.ca. 1961-1973
Website www.JacquelineduPre.net
Notable instrument(s)
Violoncello
1673 Antonio Stradivarius
Sergio Peresson 1970
David Tecchler 1696
Davydov Stradivarius 1712
Francesco Goffriller

Jacqueline Mary du Pré OBE (26 January 1945 – 19 October 1987) was an English cellist, today acknowledged as one of the greatest exponents of the instrument. She is particularly associated with Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor; her interpretation of this work has been described as "definitive" and "legendary".[1] Her career was cut short by multiple sclerosis, which forced her to cease performing at the age of 28, and eventually led to her premature death. Following her death, a book about her family life was written by her sister Hilary du Pré and her brother Piers. This book formed the basis for the movie Hilary and Jackie which aroused fierce controversy.

Contents

Biography

Early years

Born in Oxford, England, du Pré was the second child of Derek and Iris du Pré. Derek du Pré was born in Jersey, where his family had lived for generations. After having worked as an accountant at the Lloyds Bank in St Helier and London for eleven years he became assistant editor, and later the editor, of The Accountant. Her mother, born Iris Greep, was a talented pianist, and taught at the Royal Academy in London.[2] At age four du Pré is said to have heard the sound of the cello on the radio and asked her mother for "one of those." She started with lessons from her mother, who composed little pieces accompanied by illustrations, before beginning study at the London Violoncello School at age five. Her first teacher was Alison Dalrymple.

Before long she was entering and winning local music competitions alongside her sister, flautist Hilary du Pré. Du Pré’s main teacher, from 1955 to 1961, both privately and at the Guildhall School of Music in London, was the celebrated cellist William Pleeth. Subsequently she also participated in a Pablo Casals masterclass in Zermatt, Switzerland in 1960, as well as short-term studies with Paul Tortelier in Paris in 1962, and with Mstislav Rostropovich in Russia in 1966. So impressed was Rostropovich with his young pupil that at the end of her study with him, he declared her "the only cellist of the younger generation that could equal and overtake [his] own achievement."[3]

Career

In March 1961, at age sixteen, du Pré made her formal début at Wigmore Hall, London, and she made her concerto début in 1962 at Royal Festival Hall playing the Elgar Cello Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Rudolf Schwarz. She performed at the Proms in 1963 playing the Elgar Concerto again, with Sir Malcolm Sargent. Her performance of the concerto proved so popular, she subsequently returned three years in succession to perform the work. Du Pré became a favourite at the Proms, performing every year until 1969.

In 1965, at age twenty, du Pré recorded the Elgar Concerto for EMI with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir John Barbirolli, which brought her international recognition. This recording has since become the benchmark reference for the work, and one which has never been out of print since its release over forty years ago. Du Pré also performed the Elgar with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Antal Doráti for her United States début at Carnegie Hall on 14 May 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 Barbirolli, Sargent, Sir Adrian Boult, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, and Leonard Bernstein.

Du Pré primarily played two Stradivarius cellos, the instrument of 1673 (now called the "Du Pré Stradivarius"), and the 1712 Davidov Stradivarius. Both instruments were gifts from her godmother, Ismena Holland. She performed with the 1673 Stradivarius from 1961 until 1964 when she acquired the Davidov. Many of her most famous recordings were made on this instrument, including the Elgar Concerto with Barbirolli, the Robert Schumann Cello Concerto with Barenboim and the two Brahms cello sonatas. From 1969 to 1970 du Pré played a Francesco Goffriller cello, and in 1970 she acquired a modern instrument from the Philadelphia violin maker Sergio Peresson. It was the Peresson cello that du Pré played for the remainder of her career until 1973, including a second, live recording of the Elgar Concerto, and her last studio recording in 1971 of Frédéric Chopin's Cello Sonata in G minor and César Franck's Violin Sonata arranged as a cello sonata.

Her friendship with musicians Yehudi Menuhin, Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, and Pinchas Zukerman, and marriage to Barenboim, led to many memorable chamber music performances, and the 1969 performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London of the Schubert Piano Quintet in A major, "The Trout", also resulted in a film, The Trout, made by Christopher Nupen. Nupen made other films featuring du Pré, including Jacqueline du Pré and the Elgar Cello Concerto, a documentary featuring a live performance of the Elgar, and The Ghost, with Barenboim and Zukerman in a performance of the Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 70, No. 1 by Beethoven.

Personal life

Jacqueline du Pré met pianist Daniel Barenboim on New Year's Eve in 1966. Shortly after the Six-Day War ended, she cancelled all her existing engagements (to the enormous annoyance of promoters[4]), and they flew to Jerusalem. She converted to Judaism overnight, and they were married on 15 June 1967[5] at the Western Wall. Their marriage brought about one of the most fruitful relationships in the world of music, some commentators comparing the pairing to that of Robert and Clara Schumann. This was evidenced by the many performances of du Pré with Barenboim as either a pianist or conductor.

Du Pré’s sister Hilary was married to conductor Christopher "Kiffer" Finzi, with whom Jacqueline had an affair from 1971 to 1972. According to Hilary and her brother Piers in their book, A Genius in the Family, which was made into the film Hilary and Jackie, the affair was conducted with Hilary's consent as a way of helping Jacqueline through a nervous breakdown.[6] In 1999, Clare Finzi, the daughter of Kiffer and Hilary, publicly criticized 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.

In the early 1980s, Barenboim began a relationship with the Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova, with whom he had two sons: David Arthur (born 1982), a manager-writer for the German hip-hop band Level 8, and Michael Barenboim (born 1985), a violinist.

Diagnosis of multiple sclerosis

In 1971, du Pré’s playing began an irreversible decline as she began to lose sensitivity in her fingers as well as in other parts of her body, eventually being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in October 1973.

She recorded her last studio album of sonatas by Chopin and Franck in December 1971. She went on sabbatical from 1971 to 1972, during which she very rarely performed.

In 1973 du Pré resumed her concerts, but by then her symptoms had become severe. In January she toured North America. Some of the less-than-complimentary reviews were an indication that her condition had worsened, although there were brief moments when she played without noticeable problems. Her last London concerts were in February 1973, performing the Elgar Concerto with Zubin Mehta and the New Philharmonia Orchestra.

Her last public concerts were in New York in February 1973: four scheduled 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 just opening the cello case had become difficult. As she had lost sensation in her fingers, she had to visually coordinate her fingering. She performed three of the four dates before cancelling the last. Isaac Stern stepped in for du Pré, performing Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto.

Jacqueline du Pré meeting Julian Lloyd Webber

She died in London on 19 October 1987 at age 42.

Her Davidov Stradivarius was purchased for slightly over £1 million by the Vuitton Foundation, and is on loan to Yo-Yo Ma. Her 1673 Stradivarius, named in tribute by Lynn Harrell the du Pré Stradivarius, is now owned by Russian cellist Nina Kotova.[7] Her 1970 Peresson cello is currently on loan to cellist Kyril Zlotnikov of the Jerusalem Quartet.[8]

Controversial film and book

Anand Tucker's controversial 1998 film Hilary and Jackie is based on A Genius in the Family, and features Emily Watson as Jacqueline and Rachel Griffiths as Hilary. Although the film was a critical and box-office success, and received several Academy Award nominations, it ignited a furore, especially in London, the centre of du Pre's activities. A group of her closest colleagues including fellow cellists Rostropovich and Julian Lloyd Webber sent a bristling letter to The Times. Clare Finzi, Hilary's daughter, charged that the film was a "gross misinterpretation, which I cannot let go unchallenged." Students from the Royal College of Music picketed the premiere. Barenboim was said to have remarked, "Couldn't they have waited until I was dead?"[9]

Hilary, Jackie's sister and co-author of the book, strongly defends both the book and the film, writing, in The Guardian: "At first I could not understand why people didn't believe my story, because I had set out to tell the whole truth. When you tell someone the truth about your family, you don't expect them to turn around and say that it's bunkum. But I knew that Jackie would have respected what I had done. If I had gone for half-measures, she would have torn it up. She would have wanted the complete story to be told."[10] The New Yorker reports her as saying, "When you love someone, you love the whole of them. Those who are against the film want to look only at the pieces of Jackie's life that they accept. I don't think the film has taken any liberties at all. Jackie would have absolutely loved it."[11]

Honours and awards

Du Pré received several fellowships from music academies and honorary doctorate degrees from universities, in acknowledgment of her contribution to music. She was the first recipient of the prestigious Guilhermina Suggia Award, at age eleven, and remains the youngest recipient. 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 Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1976. At the 1977 BRIT Awards, she won the award for the best classical soloist album of the past 25 years for Elgar's Cello Concerto.

After du Pré’s death, a cultivar of the rose was named in her honour, which received the Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society.[12] She was made an honorary fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford, whose music building bears her name. She also left a legacy of recordings, which were later recompiled into new collections.

Selected discography

On DVD

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ "How Elgar came to Write the Concerto". The Elgar Society. Retrieved on 2007-05-21.
  2. ↑ Jose Sanchez-Penzo (6 June 2005). "Jacqueline du Pré Homage Page". jose-sanchez-penzo. Retrieved on 2008-04-29.
  3. ↑ Elizabeth Wilson (February 2005). "Jacqueline du Pré: A 60th year Anniversary celebration", BBC Music Magazine, pp. 22-26. Retrieved on 2007-05-21. 
  4. ↑ Laurie Strachan, Tragically unresonant, Weekend Australian, 6-7 February 1999
  5. ↑ Jacqueline DuPré Biography
  6. ↑ Du Pré, Piers; Du Pré, Hilary (1996). A genius in the family : an intimate memoir of Jacqueline du Pré. London: Heinemann. ISBN 0434003441. 
  7. ↑ Andy McSmith (4 April 2007). "Why do Stradivarius violins fetch so much, and are they worth it?", The Independent. Retrieved on 2007-06-30. 
  8. ↑ "Kyril Zlotnikov". Cellist.nl. Retrieved on 2007-06-30.
  9. ↑ Jay Nordlinger (22 February 1999). "Music: Twisted Sister - Review", The National Review. Retrieved on 2008-04-29. 
  10. ↑ Staff writers (21 January 1999). "The Truth About Our Wonderful Sister Jackie", The Guardian. Retrieved on 2008-04-29. 
  11. ↑ Jay Fielden (8 February 1999). "The Talk of the Town, "The Pictures"", The New Yorker. Retrieved on 2008-04-29. 
  12. ↑ "Rosa Jacqueline du Pré (Harwanna) AGM". The Royal Horticultural Society (July 2007). Retrieved on 2008-04-29.

External links