Info:
Duration: 56’ 00”
Narrated by Christopher Nupen
Year of production: 1995
Also featuring:
Daniel Barenboim
Itzhak Perlman
Pinchas Zukerman
Zubin Mehta
Sir John Barbirolli
William Pleeth
The New Philharmonia Orchestra
Why do so many people in so many parts of the world remember Jacqueline du Pré with so much affection and dedication?
There was something in her miraculous gift which touched the hearts of millions of people in ways which they do not forget, and in sharp contrast to the fate of most performing artists, her stature has continued to rise steadily since her death in 1987. That is very rare.
This film was made for what would have been the 50th anniversary of her birth on 26 January 1995 and also to raise money for the Jacqueline du Pré Memorial Concert Hall in the grounds of St Hilda's College, Oxford, where she received an Honorary Doctorate during her lifetime. That building has now been successfully completed and has added considerably to the richness of musical life in Oxford as well as being a happy memorial to Jacqueline du Pré.
The film consists partly of material that has not been seen before; sequences that we shot with her in those unforgettable years between 1967 and 1971.
The first half is filmed mostly in rehearsal situations where she is at her most revealing; full of her legendary exuberance and infectious laughter. The second half consists mostly of great music in performances at the highest level imaginable. There are substantial excerpts from Beethoven's A major 'cello sonata with Daniel Barenboim which have not been seen before, from The Ghost trio, Op.70 No.1 by Beethoven with Daniel Barenboim and Pinchas Zukerman, and the closing five minutes of the Elgar Cello Concerto, with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim, in a performance which has become legendary.
Jacqueline du Pré gave the world something that is worth remembering.
Our Films on DVD
This DVD contains a re-release of two of our most cherished Jacqueline du Pré films. The first is a portrait film which was epoch-making when it premiered; the second is a performance film which was described by the French opera and film director Jean-Pierre Ponelle as the most successful translation of musical performance onto the screen that he had ever seen. Both were pioneering films, made possible by the newly invented lightweight, silent 16mm film cameras.
We were lucky to be there in the right place, at the right time, and with the right relationship with Jacqueline du Pré to preserve something of her magic on film. There is an aura which radiates from the great performers and when it comes to remembering the artistic persona, the camera sees things which the other media do not see and it remembers them with an intimacy which nothing else can equal.
The titles of the two films are Jacqueline du Pré and the Elgar cello Concerto, which contains a complete filmed performance of the work with the new Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim and The Ghost, which is a filmed performance of Beethoven's piano Trio Opus 70 No. 1 played by Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman and Jacqueline du Pré.
There cannot be too many films made of our great performers, provided they are produced with an honest intention and true to the subject. Why? Because film remembers the artistic persona as nothing else can do in quite the same way. This is particularly true in the case of Jacqueline du Pré where so many myths have been invented to explain the unexplainable.
Happily, DVD does not need to explain, it can show the artist just as she was and in a way that was never possible before the invention of the first silent 16mm cameras in the 1960s - just in time for her. First, we present Jacqueline du Pré as seen through the eyes, the ears and the words of the people who knew her best - Who was Jacqueline du Pré? - and second, to present her through her music - Remembering Jacqueline du Pré.
Between those two films the DVD contains a montage of images of Jacqueline du Pré and Daniel Barenboim in action, taken from our archives and accompanied by an audio recording, made by us, of the first movement of the Brahms E minor cello sonata (Interlude with Johannes Brahms) and an interview with Jacqueline du Pré, shot in 1980, which has never been previously released on television, nor on home video.
This DVD contains two of the most famous Schubert films — each entirely different from the other in style, content and spirit.
The first, The Trout, presents a youthful explosion of exuberant talent; starting with Schubert himself — who wrote his Trout Quintet when he was 22 years old. His lead is picked up and brought to life by five extravagantly gifted young musicians when they were barely older than Schubert had been when he wrote the piece. Their names: Daniel Barenboim, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Jacqueline du Pré and Zubin Mehta.
The film was shot in a single week in August of 1969 and culminates with a performance of Schubert's Trout Quintet, filmed live on-stage at the new Queen Elizabeth Hall, on the south bank of the Thames, in London.
The second film, The Greatest Love and the Greatest Sorrow, looks at Schubert's astonishing achievements in the last 20 months of his life - after the death of his god, Beethoven. He asked the question, "Who would dare to do anything after Beethoven”? The answer, of course, was Franz Peter Schubert, in the music which he wrote after Beethoven's death.
