Last night (Sunday 22 October) I watched "Jacqueline du Pre: A Gift Beyond Words." This was a film made by Christopher Nupen and shown on BBC4. Du Pre has become an almost legendary figure, a musical phenomenon who married Daniel Barenboim. Both Barenboim and du Pre often collaborated with other musicians at the time. These include: Pinchas Zukerman, Zubin Mehta and Itzhak Perlman. Tragically, Du Pré was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1973. She died at the age of 42 on October 19, 1987.
On occasions like this, I like to inform those around me that I saw her perform in London in 1973 when I was a student there. The evening's programme was very promising and a chum of mine had managed to rustle up tickets for seats in the choir at 50p each. This meant we were behind the performers but able to watch the conductor Bernard Haitink. We did not know that this was to be one of du Pre's last London concerts (perhaps it was the last London performance of the Elgar but I don't know.)
What do I remember of that performance? Well, I would love to say that I was mesmerised by du Pre's rendition of the Elgar cello concerto. I would love to say how wonderful it was to be just a few yards away from a legend playing a favourite piece. How wonderful it would be to say that I knew I was in the presence of someone special and that my life was changed forever. Programmes like "A Gift Beyond Words" encourage me, 44 years later, to say these things and that it was a privilege being so near a legend.
Unfortunately, this would not be the truth. The only thing (I think) I am sure of is that she was wearing a long dress and that she played exuberantly. From behind she could have been a witch, bent over a brewing cauldron into which she hurled her devilish spices. The problem is that I have seen so many films of du Pre by now. Perhaps my memory is adding things to the 1973 performance that I experienced much later. And there is another difficulty. Nobody ever asks about the rest of the concert but the fact is that I was much more interested, at the time, in listening to the second part of the programme - a performance of Mahler's 6th symphony. I do remember (or I think I remember) being fascinated by Haitink's facial expressions as he conducted the tragic final movement with its "hammer blows" of fate. Sadly, it was hammer blows such as these that put an end to du Pre's career. It occurred to me while watching the programme last night that, perhaps, du Pre gave everything she had to the world while she was young, that she literally burned herself out in the process. I didn't know that when I watched her play all those years ago. But am I not allowed to embellish my memories and say it now or would that be to falsify memory and to create a past that never really existed?
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