In 2004 Jacqueline
du Pré fans finally saw the DVD
release of Christopher Nupen’s iconic
film, Jacqueline
du Pré and the Elgar Concerto.
A year later, he released The Greatest
Love and the Greatest Sorrow, a
fascinating and personal film about
Schubert, which he coupled with the
other acclaimed du Pré film,
The
Trout. Although these films
were finally available on DVD, we du
Pré admirers, were acutely aware
that Christopher Nupen had made two
more recent films about Jackie that
were not available on general release.
These were Remembering Jacqueline
du Pré, made in 1994, and
Who Was Jacqueline du Pré,
made in 1995.
Now, at last this new
DVD, Jacqueline du Pré: A
Celebration of Her Unique and Enduring
Gift, brings together those two
later films and also includes some never-before-released
material. These rarities have been eagerly
awaited, especially one of them, which
has only so far been seen on European
television. This film, Who Was Jacqueline
du Pré, was made in 1995
because, in the words of Mr. Nupen,
"if ever there was an artist who did
not deserve the total rubbish with which
some of the legends have invested her
name, it was Jacqueline du Pré".
The film brings together
the group of friends we first met years
ago playing "The Trout". Back
then they were young and full of future,
intoxicated with the joy of making music
together. Here we see them, years later,
luminaries of the international music
scene describing the abyss in the world
of music — and their personal lives
— left behind by Jackie’s absence. This
is Jackie as remembered — and missed
— by those who knew her intimately.
Daniel Barenboim says he had "never
met such a musical conversationalist",
to which Zubin Mehta adds that, musically,
"she gave and took without ever thinking
about it". Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
describes her as being completely direct,
never hiding "behind a technical
perfection … or an impressive mode of
expression …"
Why is it important
to remember her as a person as well
as a musician? Jacqueline du Pré
was a phenomenon, a person so full of
the joy of life that she inspired everyone
about her. If classical music was, mistakenly,
seen as something stuffy and old-fashioned,
Jackie, with her youth and enthusiasm
changed that. Thousands of people must
have come to classical music after seeing
her play because she was clearly so
vivacious. What she gave was so inspiring
and unique that it transcends music.
This film is about what Jackie gave
to those she knew, and to the rest of
us. She showed me that it was possible
to make every note of music come from
your heart, fresh and unique, woven
into poetry that seems to have just
been born. Since I first launched the
Jacqueline du Pré website in
1995, I have heard from hundreds of
people from all over the world, telling
how she inspired them musically as well
as in life. Interest in Jackie, far
from diminishing, seems to grow with
time.
Remembering Jacqueline
du Pré, released in 1994
and quickly out-of-print, was
made from previously-seen footage to
celebrate what would have been Jackie's
50th birthday on 26 January 1995. We
see new facets of the genius first encountered
in the early films. We see her more
candidly in snippets of duets with her
"cello daddy", William Pleeth, or plucking
out pop music on the cello and plunking
out Kuhlau at the piano. These films
were made long before Jackie became
world-famous, so the style is completely
natural and unforced, rather like an
unusually sophisticated home movie,
but that's why they are so precious.
Jackie is completely natural and at
ease. Yet much of that vivacity would
never disappear. We see Jackie again
later, slightly more mature but just
as uninhibited and vital. She’s glamorously
dressed in the height of 70s fashion,
but she moves like a wild creature,
not fully at home in the costume of
celebrity. She doesn't even touch a
bicycle leant against the curb, but
it falls over on its own as she passes
– as if even inanimate objects were
affected by her presence!
Christopher Nupen,
as always, adds compelling bonuses:
A complete unreleased first movement
of the Brahms Sonata in E minor with
Barenboim, with an elegant photo-montage,
plus the entire unedited interview with
Jackie from 1989, (one almost wants
to avert one’s eyes, at times, from
the transparency of her struggle). It
is powerfully moving, because her illness
is evident, but even so, her eyes shine
— she's determined to communicate. Nupen
left it completely unedited on purpose
because he wanted to show how direct
and spontaneous Jackie was. Every moment
of this footage is precious, because
we're seeing the real, untouched Jackie
for the last time.
People have asked what
all this has to do with her music, why
we need to know anything about her that
we can't get from recordings. For Jackie,
music was about life: playing
the cello was the way she expressed
what life meant to her. And through
the eyes of those she loved and love
her still, we see how this life touched
and affected so deeply. This is why
she was so passionate about being filmed,
about showing music as a way of living
and of being. She considered it so important
that she was willing — even proud —
to be filmed, even after playing the
cello was in the past for her, music
was still her native language.
This DVD is essential
for all wanting to rekindle the joy
of the familiar, while encountering
a new and intimate portrait of this
great and beloved artist.
Miguel Muelle
Note: Miguel Muelle is a respected
specialist in the music of Jacqueline
du Pre. For
more information
Jonathan Woolf
has also looked at this DVD
There seems to be no
end in sight to the du Pré legacy.
This DVD conjoins two Christopher Nupen
films and valuably includes a touching
and sad interview between the documentary
maker and the cellist filmed in 1980,
never before seen in its entirety.
Is there anything left
to be said about her? The late interview
apart, there are precious few new things
here that you won’t already know. Nupen
sounds defensive-aggressive in his introduction,
talking of the hyperbolic "myth"
and the necessity to present the facts
and truth, insofar as it is possible.
To that end the interviews with her
friends, family and contemporaries are
valuable even at this remove.
What one remembers
most is the crispness of their comments.
Zukerman says that she "played
from the stomach" and Barenboim
that she was "a musical conversationalist."
Hugh Maguire talks of their collaboration
in the Brahms Double – how she elevated
him so much that he played better than
he ever had before or since. Let’s hope
some evidence exists of that meeting.
Ashkenazy, in a wise phrase, refers
to her "intelligent intuition"
but everyone talks of her technical
mastery. "There was no fingerboard,"
says Zukerman, which could, I suppose,
be said of a number of musicians if
you wish to put it that way. Still not
many I think will have played with their
wedding ring on their left hand – amazingly
du Pré does just that in one
or two shots of her performing. "Did
you love her?" Nupen asks the glove-wearing
Fou Ts’ong. ‘Of course’ he replies.
There’s a pained silence. Elizabeth
Wilson talks of her "naturalness
but self doubt." She’s one of the
few to suggest something less than cheerful,
impervious brilliance.
In the December 1980
interview, only a small portion of which
has ever been shown on television before
and which includes clapperboard and
"off stage" talk, we see du
Pré talking about her post-performance
life. She was working on her edition
of the Elgar concerto, teaching and
in her word "rebuilding" her
life. It’s infinitely sad to hear her,
about how Clifford Curzon had visited
the previous evening to read poetry
to her, as she could no longer read.
Nupen keeps suggesting to her that she
has broadened intellectually and du
Pré half smiling, half grimacing
never quite commits herself. If he seeks
that compensation she never quite gives
it to him.
"Remembering Jacqueline
du Pré" was first shown
on television in 1995 and is well known.
Those shots of her playing Clementi
on the piano and duetting with Pleeth
in Couperin and Offenbach are wonderfully
vibrant. The colour film therefore of
the Beethoven A major Op.69 sonata is
so startling because so much has been
in black and white.
We also hear her and
Barenboim play the Brahms sonata in
E minor, first movement only and unreleased,
whilst a valuable picture montage appears
on screen
Given Nupen’s expertise
and reputation in this field he will
be annoyed to know that there is de-synchronicity
between sound and vision at various
points – noticeable particularly when
Toby Perlman, Elizabeth Wilson and Fischer-Dieskau
are talking.
Jonathan Woolf
See also Jacqueline
du Pré – twenty years on Anne
Ozorio talks to Christopher Nupen
ALLEGRO
FILMS A07CND [210:00] 
