Jacqueline du Pré was a prodigious, renowned British cellist of the 20th century. Many of you will already know who she was, but may be interested in Carol Easton’s book to learn more about du Pré’s life. Below the next 3 paragraphs, which are the heart of my review, I have put together a brief sketch of du Pré’s life and career, as a background to my review. If you wish to really learn about Jacqueline’s life, I recommend you acquire Easton’s book. It is incomparably better than my short summary which follows, and quite arguably the best of the biographies written of her.
Easton met Jacqueline du Pré in 1982, 5 years before Jacqueline died, and saw her often for most of that time. Though Jacqueline’s husband, brother and sister declined to be interviewed for this book, over 100 other acquaintances, including other musicians, neighbors, friends, patrons, psychologists, doctors, pundits and reviewers contributed to this richly detailed and eloquently written biography. Easton chronicles, in detail, du Pré’s years as one of the most accomplished cellists of her times. The work contains full details of some of Jacqueline’s more memorable performances, including dates, venues, orchestras, other performers, as well as the receptions by the audiences. Innumerable quotations from published critques and reviews, along with quotes from some of the many interviews she conducted, were woven seemlessly into the text.
Nearly all of the interviewees who were quoted, spoke eloquently about, and with great admiration for Du Pré, not just for her musicianship, but about her qualities as a person. Though Easton was obviously an admirer of her subject, she doesn’t portray her as a saint. She never hesitated to describe Jacqueline objectively, noting her shortcomings as well. From reading this book, I’m satisfied that I possess a realistic and accurate understanding of who Du Pré was as a person and what her life was about.
Easton readily confesses that she is not an expert on musical theory or the intricacies of various artistic techniques. This biography is not about technicalities, few of which you will find in the text. It is all about Jacqueline du Pré’s life. However, abundant professional reviews of Jacqueline’s performances are provided throughout the book as direct quotations from newspaper reviews or as quotations in interviewees’ own words.
Reviewer’s Mini-biography:
Jacqueline du Pré, who started playing the cello at 4, was immediately recognized as having remarkable talent. By her early teens, she had already begun performing in public at lesser known venues, as a “child prodigy”. In 1961, at the age of 16, she made her London debut at Wigmore Hall, playing a Stradivarius nonetheless, which she received as a gift from a wealthy patron. The audience was overwhelmed by her performance, and by the following morning when reviews appeared in the press, offers for recitals and orchestral engagements began flooding in, and thus her career was launched.
During the following 10 years, she received a flood of invitations to play at countless, prestigious venues, with some of the most prominent orchestras of the world. In 1965, at the age of 20, she toured the United States with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. On Christmas Eve, 1966, she met and played (informally) with Daniel Barenboim for the first time. The two were married 6 months later in Israel, and spent the next 5 years touring the international classical music circuit together and separately. That period in her life proved to be an exhilarating, though quite exhaustive, seemingly uninterrupted sequence of performances, all to great acclaim.
In late 1970, Jacqueline began experiencing fleeting, but nevertheless worrying, intermittent physical impairments: numbness in her fingers, extreme fatigue, mysterious aches and pains – which ultimately proved to be symptoms of the onset of multiple sclerosis (MS). No doubt, the stresses of her high-pressured, hectic career, jet setting from continent to continent, playing concerts on short notice, were taking a toll on her health. The early symptoms were severe enough to prevent her from giving quality performances, and she had to take leave from the concert circuit. As months and years passed, despite medical and psychological treatments, her condition worsened, as the debilitating disease gradually took over her body. She was forced finally to call it quits by 1973. All the while, Barenboim continued with his career, increasingly away from home, staying in touch by phone whenever possible and providing financial support. Confined to her bed and wheelchair in her small London flat for the next 14 years, Jacqueline’s condition progressively worsened, and she succumbed to pneumonia in late 1987, at the young age of 42, a lonely, depressed, disillusioned and heartbroken woman.
Music and the cello weren’t just the loves of Jacqueline’s life, they WERE her life. The cello was her very best friend, to which she turned time and again to relieve stress and seek solace. Both music and her cello were tragically denied her due to the devastating effects of her disease. Worse than that, there were inevitable psychological consequences, such as loneliness, depression, severe loss self-esteem and self-worth. Her immediate family largely abandoned her, in disapproval over her marriage to a Jewish man. Barenboim cared, but was away most of the time, busy with his career. Visits by former colleagues and friends during the last years of her life helped buoy her spirts a bit, as did the occasional honorary degrees she received, and the OBE award (Order of the British Empire), but in the end, they could not begin to compensate for her loss of freedom and a meaningful and rewarding life. Jacqueline du Pré will live on, through her music and Easton's fine biography, in the hearts of those who appreciate fine classical music.
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Top reviews from other countries
gloria
La vera, triste storia di Jaqueline du Pré.
Reviewed in Italy on April 6, 2023Ellen Ley
I couldn't put this down!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 3, 2023P. A. Mitchell
A good bio but with a few reservations
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 12, 2009
