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Some say it\u2019s the red-hot personality, others that it\u2019s the du Pr\u00e9-Barenboim love story, still others that the tragic emotions evoked in the music foreshadow the tragedy that later befell the performer. Whether there\u2019s a rational explanation or not, Jacqueline du Pr\u00e9<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s recording of the Elgar<\/strong><\/a> Cello Concerto has a magic that has made it legendary.<\/p> The work became rapidly and deeply associated with the British cellist, not least thanks to Christopher Nupen\u2019s sensitive film of her performing it, but nearly 25 years after her untimely death the impact remains undimmed. Her interpretation has its detractors: some find her unbridled passion and exaggerated dynamics antithetical to Elgar\u2019s reflective restraint.<\/p> Nevertheless she made the work her own in a way that remains absolutely unique. Cellists the world over must still contend with the shadow of her playing every time they tackle it. Here is former BBC Music Magazine editor Helen Wallace on the magic of Jacqueline du Pr\u00e9. <\/p> Watching once again Christopher Nupen<\/a>\u2019s film Jacqueline du Pr\u00e9<\/i> in Portrait<\/i><\/a>, I\u2019m reminded why I wanted to learn the cello as a child. No one before or since has ever made it look such fun. For du Pr\u00e9 it was an absolutely natural extension of herself.<\/strong> <\/p> Just seeing her face illuminated by pure inspiration, her long balletic bowing arm, the precision engineering of that wrist, her tremendous long fingers snapping down on the finger board, or executing those heart-stopping slides between notes \u2013 what she called her \u2018sumptuous glissandi\u2019 \u2013 makes you itch to play: her enjoyment remains infectious; everything seems possible.<\/p> And for her it was. She almost makes us forget that, for even the greatest instrumentalists, performing is a continual battle with the body to recreate what the imagination demands. \u2018For us mortals, it\u2019s more difficult,\u2019 as her husband Daniel Barenboim<\/a><\/strong> comments on the same film. <\/p> The veteran maestro has since acknowledged he learnt more about music from du Pr\u00e9 than from anyone else. Witnessing her performing can still have a powerful impact on the uninitiated, as Nupen himself knows: \u2018I was told of a four-year-old child in Canada recently who had cried for days after watching Jackie\u2019s Elgar Concerto<\/strong><\/a>. How do you explain that?\u2019 The fact she can still inspire a new generation is reason enough to keep returning to her legacy. But the films are important for another reason too: they capture the truth of her complex personality.<\/p> Just over 20 years ago, controversy raged when a book published by her brother Piers and sister Hilary, with Jan Young husband, A Genius in the Family: An Intimate Memoir<\/i> was turned into a feature film, Hilary and Jackie<\/i> \u2013 note who came first.<\/p> It not only told the tragic tale of a virtuoso cut down in her prime by multiple sclerosis, but managed to produce an image of du Pr\u00e9 as an egotistic prima donna, who had never enjoyed life as a concert artist, and left family and friends trailing in her wake. Nupen is not alone in believing that damage was done to her reputation. Lord Menuhin and a host of former colleagues wrote a letter pleading that the film be stopped, but realised too late that their intervention had only given it more publicity. <\/p> For du Pr\u00e9\u2019s friend and biographer, Elizabeth Wilson, it was a painful episode. She had been asked by Barenboim shortly after du Pre\u2019s death in 1987 to write an official biography. When she was ready to start work she visited Hilary and Piers in order to see if they wanted to collaborate. <\/p> They felt that she wouldn\u2019t be giving them enough \u2018space\u2019 and in any case were considering writing their own. Despite discussions, access to the family archive was denied Wilson. \u2018It didn\u2019t stop me; I just had to work much harder and do more research; but it would have added an extra dimension to my book if they\u2019d agreed to cooperate. I had the feeling that they had embarked on a commercial enterprise with a personal agenda,\u2019 she recalls, \u2018The fact that there was no consultation with Barenboim about content made me quite suspicious.\u2019 <\/p> Wilson acknowledges that the siblings had every right to recount the difficulties they experienced growing up with a prodigiously talented sister. What dismayed many was the sense that commercial pressures had made them divulge things Jackie would never have wanted made public. \u2018As a biographer one must try to be objective and describe various points of view. But the du Pr\u00e9s wrote their book knowing that Jackie could no longer defend herself.\u2019<\/p>‘No one has ever made the cello look such fun’<\/h2>
What happened to Jacqueline du Pr\u00e9?<\/h2>
Who wrote Jacquline du Pr\u00e9’s biography? <\/h3>
Who was the real Jacqueline du Pre?<\/h2>