Jacqueline du Pré - A Celebration

Something old, something new…a fine tribute but du Pré lives on in the music

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Ludwig van Beethoven, François Couperin, Arthur Benjamin, Felix Mendelssohn, Iris Du Pré, Franz Schubert, Max Bruch, Johannes Brahms, Edward Elgar

Genre:

DVD

Label: The Christopher Nupen Films

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 195

Mastering:

Stereo
Mono

Catalogue Number: A07CND

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Jamaican Rumba Arthur Benjamin, Composer
Arthur Benjamin, Composer
Jacqueline du Pré, Cello
Piano Trios, Movement: No. 5 in D, Op. 70/1, 'Ghost' Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer
Jacqueline du Pré, Cello
Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer
Trio for Clarinet/Viola, Cello and Piano Johannes Brahms, Composer
Jacqueline du Pré, Cello
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 2 Johannes Brahms, Composer
Jacqueline du Pré, Cello
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Kol Nidrei Max Bruch, Composer
Jacqueline du Pré, Cello
Max Bruch, Composer
Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 3 Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer
Jacqueline du Pré, Cello
Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer
Quintet for Piano and Strings, 'Trout' Franz Schubert, Composer
Franz Schubert, Composer
Jacqueline du Pré, Cello
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra Felix Mendelssohn, Composer
Felix Mendelssohn, Composer
Jacqueline du Pré, Cello
(Die) Forelle Franz Schubert, Composer
Franz Schubert, Composer
Jacqueline du Pré, Cello
Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1 Johannes Brahms, Composer
Jacqueline du Pré, Cello
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Jumping Frogs Iris Du Pré, Composer
Iris Du Pré, Composer
Jacqueline du Pré, Cello
If I could fly like a bird in the sky Iris Du Pré, Composer
Iris Du Pré, Composer
Jacqueline du Pré, Cello
(Les) Goûts-réünis, ou Nouveaux concerts, Movement: XIV Concert François Couperin, Composer
François Couperin, Composer
Jacqueline du Pré, Cello
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra Edward Elgar, Composer
Edward Elgar, Composer
Jacqueline du Pré, Cello
Who was Jacqueline du Pré? (2001) is Christopher Nupen’s third documentary film about the great English cellist who died of multiple sclerosis two decades ago. In it, the film-maker interviews du Pré’s colleagues and friends, who all pay loving, wide-eyed tribute not only to her staggering musical gifts but also to her girlish exuberance, lack of pretension and emotional sincerity. It’s all very touching, of course, though if you’ve seen Nupen’s previous films – Jacqueline du Pré and the Elgar Cello Concerto (1982) and Remembering Jacquline du Pré (1994), the latter helpfully reissued to conclude this programme – I doubt you’ll find much new. And an appended video montage (with still and moving images forming a visual accompaniment to du Pré’s and Barenboim’s recording of the first movement of Brahms’s E minor Cello Sonata) struck me as a bit maudlin. Perhaps the most affecting portion is a 1980 interview, originally taped for the Elgar Concerto documentary and presented here in its unedited entirety for the first time. Not only does Pré’s radiant personality shine through its 15 minutes, but also a deeply affecting feeling of quiet sadness that’s all the more potent for being entirely free of self-pity.

Nupen says that he made his most recent film to counteract some of the myths that have arisen about the cellist in the years since her death. Still, I’d wager that Who was Jacqueline du Pré? is a question answered most forcefully by her recordings. As her friend, the pianist Fou Ts’ong puts it: “I always heard in her music the person she is. And music never lies.”

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