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"Favourite Cello Concertos"
During her far-too-brief career, cellist
du Jacqueline du Pre exhibited an almost oracular power of communication.Du
Pré's performances bristled with the kind of brilliant
electricity that could change lives and convert listeners to
a lifelong love of music. Happily, it's possible to experience
a sense of that power from the recordings du Pré completed
before multiple sclerosis halted her career as a performer in
the early 1970s. This set provides a splendid portrait--at bargain
price--of du Pré's unmistakable personality: the astonishingly
original yet convincing phrasing, raw energy, and ability to
make her instrument sound uncannily like a human voice ( Jacqueline
du Pre was after all a favored student of Mstislav Rostropovich).
Her rendition of Haydn's Concerto in C is clearly cast in a romantic--and
nowadays perhaps unfashionable--mold, yet du Pré's big,
bold tone carries the musical line forward with exhilarating
presence. It's a demeanor that proves especially reassuring for
the quirkily mercurial inventions of Boccherini. Yet du Pré
most indelibly leaves her signature on the work that became her
hallmark, Edward Elgar's E Minor Concerto, grafting a deeply
personal level of expression onto the score's rich post-World
War I melancholy. In the Schumann, du Pré makes an eloquently
passionate protagonist. A similar sense of excitement is to be
heard in Dvorák's Concerto--performed near the end of
her career--above all in the flame of inspiration she evidently
sparks from the orchestra in the serene close of its slow movement.
--Thomas May |
Reviewer: rrr338 from Wisconsin
My first exposure to Du Pre's gifts
came with a listening to the Dvorak Cello Concerto in B Minor,
with Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony. My wife often
listened to this piece at work, and chanced to bring it home
one night. What a truly moving piece of work! I agree with critic
Peter Gammond, who said that this version of the Dvorak Concerto
almost gives one a "physical shock" upon first listening.
Du Pre played the cello with more drama, more deeply felt emotion,
than anyone else I've heard. While driving in the car one day,
the Dvorak concerto came on the radio, played by a different
musician. It was pointed out to me that this was the same composition
on the Du Pre recording, and I could scarcely believe it! In
contrast to Du Pre, the music sounded flat, unisprired, even
plodding. The other works on this disc are equallly impressive.
If you like the cello, and feel that it is meant to convey a
sense of dramatic tension from the heart, then this is a collection
you most certainly will want to enjoy again and again. It is
a tragedy that Du Pre left the world at age 28, but her talent,
fortunately, still shines on for many. |
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