Jacqueline du Pre: documentary & performance, BBC 4

[Lat-Literal]

Watching associates and commentators remarking on her creative spontaneity, along with an ability to make her musical interpretations seem uniquely as if she were herself composing the works on the spot, for me it brought how the greatest jazz musicians are perceived by those of us who love that music to mind.

This.

I did like the black and white film of her walking down Lots Road with cello in tow.....As to Nupen's films - I think the point he wished to make was that photogenic young people could get off on this type of music the way hairer and less kempt folk of the same age could get off on psychedlic rock and heavy metal.

And this.....with apologies for the edit.

There is much here about the way in which the right people with the right spirit can draw people towards music that might not always be to their taste.

I do think she was very special in every way - any saccharine aspects in the programme were fine although I felt the comment/descriptions could have been more imaginative and substantial.

I'd like to mention her Croydon - and Purley - education. Articles on this borough's classical music heritage don't tend to mention her.

Am not especially inclined to get into the spiteful soap opera account of her final years including the notion put forward by the true cultists closest to her (family and family-by-marriage) that her illness was God's punishment for converting to Judaism but I am a little puzzled by Barenboim at that time, not that I know his every move.

[pastoralguy]

I was surprised that the interviews with her parents were omitted. Her mother came across as the archetypical 'ambitious parent' living her dreams out through her child. Whenever I hear the expression 'steely glint' I always think of Mother du Pre.

Actually, here's a story. My violin teacher was a distinguished soloist on the musical scene who told me that the first time he heard du Pre was in an Usher Hall Edinburgh Festival concert. 'She came on to the stage, sat down and tuned. I looked at my partner and our jaws dropped. We had NEVER heard a sound like that from a stringed instrument before. Alas, that was the last time that evening she produced that quality. She bashed the strings so hard that she completely crushed the sound and inevitably, broke a string as well as a lot of hairs on her bow. One of the most disappointing performances I've ever heard'.

Just an alternative opinion amongst the gushing...

[Conchis]

This.


And this.....with apologies for the edit.

There is much here about the way in which the right people with the right spirit can draw people towards music that might not always be to their taste.

I do think she was very special in every way - any saccharine aspects in the programme were fine although I felt the comment/descriptions could have been more imaginative and substantial.

I'd like to mention her Croydon - and Purley - education. Articles on this borough's classical music heritage don't tend to mention her.

Am not especially inclined to get into the spiteful soap opera account of her final years including the notion put forward by the true cultists closest to her (family and family-by-marriage) that her illness was God's punishment for converting to Judaism but I am a little puzzled by Barenboim at that time, not that I know his every move.

He was a young man with an international career: the temptations were there and he fell for them.

Imagine if Linda McCartney had not been able to accompany her husband on his internatinal jaunts during the 70s and you may gain clarity on the situation.

I really don't think blame can or should be apportioned.

[Lat-Literal]

He was a young man with an international career: the temptations were there and he fell for them.

Imagine if Linda McCartney had not been able to accompany her husband on his internatinal jaunts during the 70s and you may gain clarity on the situation.

I really don't think blame can or should be apportioned.

Yes - thank you.

[pastoralguy]

I've never been much of a Barenboim fan and I, in my ignorance, heard all the stuff about him 'abandoning' du Pre during her long fight with M.S. And thought less of him because of it.

And then I became a nurse in a unit that specialised in long term neurological illnesses including M.S. It is such a horrible disease that causes the sufferers to slowly lose control over their bodies and life. Inevitably, what were once strong relationships can founder under the horror of watching a person lose cognitive function, swallowing, bowel and bladder control, fine motor control and then gross motor control, speech and the ability to communicate in any meaningful way. And the less the person can move so the more they are susceptible to hazards of immobility such as pressure sores, muscle deterioration and digestive problems. The deteriorating body is there but the person has long gone.

Very often, the patient becomes selfish and demanding since that behaviour is the only way they can exercise any form of control over their life and life for anyone trying to care for them can be absolute hell. In the 15 years I worked in the unit I saw SO MANY relationships founder. The unaffected half of a relationship suffered from so much guilt that they couldn't help their loved one. Many struggled on until they themselves became ill with physical and mental exhaustion. Often, the hardest part is to draw a line and walk away. The patient will NOT get better.

Now, I have nothing but respect for Barenboim.

And M.S. Research Is still woefully underfunded with J.K. Rowling being the biggest supporter of funding for a cure.

[Lat-Literal]

I've never been much of a Barenboim fan and I, in my ignorance, heard all the stuff about him 'abandoning' du Pre during her long fight with M.S. And thought less of him because of it.

And then I became a nurse in a unit that specialised in long term neurological illnesses including M.S. It is such a horrible disease that causes the sufferers to slowly lose control over their bodies and life. Inevitably, what were once strong relationships can founder under the horror of watching a person lose cognitive function, swallowing, bowel and bladder control, fine motor control and then gross motor control, speech and the ability to communicate in any meaningful way. And the less the person can move so the more they are susceptible to hazards of immobility such as pressure sores, muscle deterioration and digestive problems. The deteriorating body is there but the person has long gone.

Very often, the patient becomes selfish and demanding since that behaviour is the only way they can exercise any form of control over their life and life for anyone trying to care for them can be absolute hell. In the 15 years I worked in the unit I saw SO MANY relationships founder. The unaffected half of a relationship suffered from so much guilt that they couldn't help their loved one. Many struggled on until they themselves became ill with physical and mental exhaustion. Often, the hardest part is to draw a line and walk away.

Now, I have nothing but respect for Barenboim.

And M.S. Research Is still woefully underfunded with J.K. Rowling being the biggest supporter of funding for a cure.

Yes - well expressed - I can understand that.

Personally, I couldn't have even been employed in that capacity.

[oddoneout]

I did like the black and white film of her walking down Lots Road with cello in tow and an old bloke giving her a somewhat lustful look-over.

I think said cello being hoisted overhead to avoid dawdling pedestrians gave him pause for thought....

[Barbirollians]

I feel sorry for your violin teacher PG - he seems to have come across her on a very off day judging by her recordings . Perhaps it was near the end when MS was already affecting her playing and I am sure I read that she did over compensate for the loss of control .

[Barbirollians]

The Dvorak concerto is also of course on Iplayer.

[Stunsworth]

I think said cello being hoisted overhead to avoid dawdling pedestrians gave him pause for thought....

Was that the clip where a bicycle fell over just after she’d passed it?

[Conchis]

I've never been much of a Barenboim fan and I, in my ignorance, heard all the stuff about him 'abandoning' du Pre during her long fight with M.S. And thought less of him because of it.

And then I became a nurse in a unit that specialised in long term neurological illnesses including M.S. It is such a horrible disease that causes the sufferers to slowly lose control over their bodies and life. Inevitably, what were once strong relationships can founder under the horror of watching a person lose cognitive function, swallowing, bowel and bladder control, fine motor control and then gross motor control, speech and the ability to communicate in any meaningful way. And the less the person can move so the more they are susceptible to hazards of immobility such as pressure sores, muscle deterioration and digestive problems. The deteriorating body is there but the person has long gone.

Very often, the patient becomes selfish and demanding since that behaviour is the only way they can exercise any form of control over their life and life for anyone trying to care for them can be absolute hell. In the 15 years I worked in the unit I saw SO MANY relationships founder. The unaffected half of a relationship suffered from so much guilt that they couldn't help their loved one. Many struggled on until they themselves became ill with physical and mental exhaustion. Often, the hardest part is to draw a line and walk away. The patient will NOT get better.

Now, I have nothing but respect for Barenboim.

And M.S. Research Is still woefully underfunded with J.K. Rowling being the biggest supporter of funding for a cure.

I knew it was an awful disease but your graphic description helps me appreciate just HOW awful it is.

Until we've been there ourselves, I don't think we can comment....

[Barbirollians]

I knew it was an awful disease but your graphic description helps me appreciate just HOW awful it is.

Until we've been there ourselves, I don't think we can comment....

As I understood it from Elizabeth Wilson's biography du Pre recognised his career had to continue. They remained married and were not estranged but Barenboim entered into a new relationship and had children with his new partner.

Also du Pre did not have relapsing and remitting MS but the kind that just goes downhill badly from the start apart from that brief remission in the early 1970s.

Anyway back to the music anyone else watched the 1968 concert ?

[Bryn]

... anyone else watched the 1968 concert ?

So good to see and hear it again after all these years. What a year that was! One of my work colleagues at the time had managed to get out of Czechoslovakia as the tanks rolled in. Also the year I first encountered John Tilbury ("The Contemporary Pianist" series at the South Bank complex). That was one of the most influential musical experiences of my life. Stockhausen's Plus-Minus in a performance version by Gavin Bryars was particularly affecting, especially the Tiny Tim moment.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Anyway, just watched the Dvorak - absolutely terrific intense playing all round and how lovely to hear such an intelligent introduction and voiceover by Antony Hopkins who also tells a Paganini anecdote during the broken string .

[johnb]

So good to see and hear it again after all these years. What a year that was! One of my work colleagues at the time had managed to get out of Czechoslovakia as the tanks rolled in. Also the year I first encountered John Tilbury ("The Contemporary Pianist" series at the South Bank complex). That was one of the most influential musical experiences of my life. Stockhausen's Plus-Minus in a performance version by Gavin Bryars was particularly affecting, especially the Tiny Tim moment.

When the soviet tanks rolled in I was attending an international conference on low temperature physics at St Andrews (as a post grad). There were physicists from all over the world, including a strong Russian contingent. Suddenly a great many of the attendees began wearing pin badges which some enterprising soul had produced. They displayed a single word - "Dubcek".

I found it very moving.