Our Page about Jacqueline Du Pré.

acqueline du Pré was born in Oxford on January 26, 1945 into a middle-class family in which music was important: her mother was a fine pianist and a gifted teacher. The French-sounding name derived from her father's Channel Islands ancestry. Just before her fifth birthday, when she was already showing musical promise, she heard the sound of a cello on the radio and the course of her life was set. She studied at Herbert Walenn's London Violincello School and at ten became a pupil of William Pleeth, who had himself studied with Julius Klengel and was a passionate, uninhibited performer best known as a chamber muscician. Although in due course du Pré furthered her studies with Casals in Switzerland, Tortelier in Paris and Rostropovich in Moscow, she always acknowledged Pleeth as her main teacher. In 1956 she won the Suggia Award (which commemorated the distinguished Portuguese woman cellist who had died six years earlier), and in 1961 she made a successful London recital début, playing a 1672 Stradivari cello. The following year she appeared with a full orchestra for the first time and made her Promenade Concert début-both times in the Elgar Concerto-and began to record for EMI. She formed a successful duo with the pianist Stephen Kovacevich and acquired the magnificent 1712 "Davidov" strad. Gradually she consolidated her reputation and by 1965, she was a star. That year she made her American début and in 1967 she married the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim. In July 1971, when she should have been at her peak, she began suffering seriously from a mysterious ailment which had already intermittently affected her playing. Eventually multiple sclerosis was diagnosed and, after a cruel series of remissions and relapses typical of that illness, in 1973 she retired. Although she taught a little and occasionally appeared in public, she was never again able to play the cello. Gradually her health deteriorated, and she died in London on October 19, 1987. Nonetheless, more than half a century after her birth, she remains a lasteing inspiration to all lovers of music and the cello.

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Jacqueline's fan-pages :

The Jacqueline Du Pré Homage Page by José Sánchez-Penzo.
The Jacqueline Du Pré Home-Pageby Miguel Muelle.

Jaqueline's discography at EMI :

A Lasting Inspiration
cat# 7243 5 65955 2 1

Tracklisting
ANTONÍN DVORÁK;
Cello Concerto in B minor
JOSEPH HAYDN
Cello Concerto No.2 in D
EDWARD ELGAR
Cello Concero in E minor
MARIA THERESIA VON PARADIS
Sicilienne
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Three Fantasy Pieces
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Song Without Words in D
GABRIEL FAURÉ
Élégie in C Minor

A Lasting Inspiration, volume 2
cat# 7243 5 66350 2 9

Tracklisting
LUIGI BOCCHERINI
Cello Concerto in B flat
ANTONÍN DVORÁK;
Cello Concerto in B minor
JOSEPH HAYDN
Cello Concerto No.1 in C
DVORÁK;
Silent Woods
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Piano Trio in Dm "Ghost"
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Cello Concerto No.1 in E minor
BEETHOVEN
Seven Variations on "Bei Mä, wiche Liebe fühlen"
CÉSAR FRANCK
Sonata in A