Classic 'Cellists: BBC4 tonight at 8:00pm

[ardcarp]

I know little about string instruments except that the size of cellos (and violas, and to a lesser extent, violins) is not set in tablets of stone, so they can vary quite a lot. (Things may have become more standardised in the modern era.)

[Richard Tarleton]

I know little about string instruments except that the size of cellos (and violas, and to a lesser extent, violins) is not set in tablets of stone, so they can vary quite a lot. (Things may have become more standardised in the modern era.)

I assumed it was down to her being tiny, and him being 6'4" with huge hands - the cellos could well have been the same size

[Barbirollians]

My point was that this is a programme about classic cellists - the violin and piano programmes and this one with the exception of young SKM were concerned only with highly established players . His inclusion seemed out of place .

As for du Pre as I understood it from Elizabeth Wilson's biography her struggles with the Davidoff dated from the early stages of her then undiagnosed MS .

[Richard Tarleton]

As for du Pre as I understood it from Elizabeth Wilson's biography her struggles with the Davidoff dated from the early stages of her then undiagnosed MS .

I haven't read that (tho' I have read the distasteful "A Genius in the Family", by her sister and brother, which comes under the heading of "too much information" ) - but Tony Faber in "Stradivarius" says du Pré fell out of love with the Davidoff long before her MS was diagnosed. In June 1968, five years before she retired from the concert stage [and as it happens the year I first heard her, in Oxford, playing with Barenboim and Zukerman] she called Charles Beare to tell him the Davidoff was unplayable. Humidity problems from her travel arrangements were oart of the problem - Beare found her the Gofriller for her next engagement. Later he said that "In retrospect it [the Davidoff] was the wrong cello for her". For her last 2 years of uninterrupted playing in public she played a modern cello, a Peresson. I heard her last London performance in February 1973, not sure which cello she was playing but it was probably the Peresson. The Davidoff was largely silent for the next 10 years, until she and Barenboim decided to lend it to Yo-Yo Ma in 1983.

[Barbirollians]

I haven't read that (tho' I have read the distasteful "A Genius in the Family", by her sister and brother, which comes under the heading of "too much information" ) - but Tony Faber in "Stradivarius" says du Pré fell out of love with the Davidoff long before her MS was diagnosed. In June 1968, five years before she retired from the concert stage [and as it happens the year I first heard her, in Oxford, playing with Barenboim and Zukerman] she called Charles Beare to tell him the Davidoff was unplayable. Humidity problems from her travel arrangements were oart of the problem - Beare found her the Gofriller for her next engagement. Later he said that "In retrospect it [the Davidoff] was the wrong cello for her". For her last 2 years of uninterrupted playing in public she played a modern cello, a Peresson. I heard her last London performance in February 1973, not sure which cello she was playing but it was probably the Peresson. The Davidoff was largely silent for the next 10 years, until she and Barenboim decided to lend it to Yo-Yo Ma in 1983.

You may well be right that there were other issues with it . It is just my recollection that she found the Peresson much easier to play - she played it on the studio Dvorak recording for example .

I haven't read the disgusting sounding Genius in the Family .