Jacqueline Du Pre: Her Life, Her Music, Her Legend
by Elizabeth Wilson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Elizabeth WilsonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1999-03-07
ISBN: 155970490X
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
Book Reviews of Jacqueline Du Pre: Her Life, Her Music, Her Legend
Book Review: A wonderful hagiography!
Summary: 2 Stars
When looking for a biography of Du Pr?, I consciously avoided the ill-reputed memoir by her siblings and opted for this "more balanced" account. However, Wilson clearly has as many stakes in her recounting of Du Pr?'s life as Hilary and Piers du Pr? had, and whatever the merits of this book, objectivity is not among them. I guess people who knew their subject personally rarely make good biographers, and in that respect the involvement of Barenboim in this venture is worrisome. Wilson's over-the-top, sustained exaltation almost becomes the verbal equivalent of du Pr?'s larger-than-life style of playing. But even a performer of this stature can give only one "best ever" concert, not ten or twenty...
There can be no question about du Pr?'s extraordinary talent and charisma. Her 1965 Elgar disc still stands firm as one of the absolute must-haves of classical recordings. Why can't Wilson let that be enough, why the need to describe her subject as if she were a creature of all-round unearthly perfection? Du Pr? has suffered much from the fact that her precocious talent set her apart from "normal" people; Wilson widens the gulf rather than bridging it, thus posthumously compounding the trauma. The fact of the matter is that du Pr? was not only an extraordinary musician, but also an ordinary, flesh and blood, and therefore flawed human being.
In Wilson's rendering, however, du Pr? is literally flawless. This is most evident in her reporting on less than perfect concert performances. The blame is immediately diverted from the cellist: the instrument was no good; the conductor was unsympathetic; the orchestra was sloppy... When citing some insightful critical reviews of Du Pr?'s New York debut, rather than using them to add profile to her image, Wilson again jumps into defensive mode, not afraid to draw the embarrassingly feeble conclusion that these 'nit-picking' critics simply weren't able to open up to du Pr?'s artistry. She won't hesitate either to then go on and tell us why she, Wilson, thinks it was actually a very good performance - as if her personal opinion is of any particular interest to the reader.
Worse, by letting go of objectivity, Wilson ignores the core dilemma of du Pr?'s playing: the overbearing presence of her personality in it, often overruling the intentions of the composer and sometimes reducing the music, as one reviewer astutely observed, to a mere "plaything". It explains her lack of interest in composers, backgrounds, or scores of the works she played; it may also explain why she chose to spend the tragically brief decade of her musical maturity playing the same, unadventurous handful of works over and over again, rather than exploring (let alone inspiring) new repertoire. She contented herself with works that were apt vehicles for her style of playing and was quick to drop pieces that did not immediately "fit" her (e.g. Shostakovich's First Cello concerto, or the Britten Cello Symphony). Wilson off-handedly explains Du Pr?'s narrow choice of repertoire with the extraordinary and nonsensical claim that the literature for solo cello is relatively limited. Why, even the father of her brother in law, Gerald Finzi, wrote a wonderful cello concerto she never played.
Insights into the personality and psychology of the cellist are completely absent. How du Pr?'s personality worked, and why, remains completely unclear. Her refusal to accept real responsibilities, exemplified by the willy-nilly cancellation of concert appointments, suggests a certain immaturity - but Wilson simply files it under "spontaneity". Baffling contradictions abound. Du Pr? needed an audience to be able to play, we're told, yet she played exactly the same whether she was in a recording studio or in concert. She remained simple and unassuming, yet was very picky when it came to selecting orchestra's with which she did and didn't want to play. The marriage to Barenboim was heaven itself, nevertheless all of a sudden they are breaking up and both conducting extramarital affairs, dramatic developments that are mentioned by Wilson out-of-the-blue, and as quickly passed over.
By avoiding going into these thorny questions and glossing over du Pr?'s image, the book quickly becomes repetitive, even boring. We are told ad nauseam how strongly du Pr? communicated through her playing, how rich her musical intuitions were, and how everybody instantly fell in love with her. Endless paeans of praise fill page after page. Claims are made that at times stretch credulity: did Muscovites really burst into tears by the dozens at hearing Du Pr? play something as innocuous as Haydn's C major concerto? Was she really able to imagine the orchestral accompaniment of the Delius concerto from the solo voice alone at first acquaintance? Or are we crossing the line between biography and mythology?
The breathless adoration unfortunately also goes at the cost of accuracy. The violinist is called Buswell, not Buzwell; Gerald Finzi died in 1956, not 1959; halfway through the Moscow chapter Natalia Gutman suddenly changes into Natasha; - even musical terms are misspelled: we come across things like "spicatto" and "fermato".
By the time Wilson arrives at the harrowing final illness (dispatched very succinctly, by the way), she has put du Pr? at such a distance from the reader and humanity in general that it is almost impossible to feel moved at all at this devastating tragedy. I will now be seeking out "A genius in the family", where hopefully Jackie will reemerge as a human being.
Summary of Jacqueline Du Pre: Her Life, Her Music, Her Legend
The definitive biography of a beautiful musical genius, one of the best-lovedmusicians of the 20th century. 24 illustrations.This biography of the cellist Jacqueline du Pr?, who died in 1987 after a long struggle against multiple sclerosis, has been written with the full support of her husband, the musician and conductor Daniel Barenboim. At first sight it could be construed as something of a counterweight to books critical of Barenboim written by du Pr?'s brother and sister--in particular A Genius in the Family. But while Barenboim does present his side of the story--in relation to both du Pr?'s illness and the strains it put upon their marriage--Elizabeth Wilson has in fact presented a balanced portrait of du Pr? not only as a woman but also as an artist. And this is the book's real strength.
Wilson, a cellist herself, knew du Pr? in her playing days and has paid as much attention to the music as to the offstage emotional dramas. She burst upon the music scene as a phenomenally talented 16-year-old, and ever since, du Pr?'s fame and tragic life story have made the task of stripping the myth from the reality no easy task. In fact, Elizabeth Wilson has done a professional job in unraveling du Pr?'s enigmatic life and legacy, but most of all, she reminds us that du Pr? became famous in the first place because of her genius as a musician. --Nick Wroe, Amazon.co.uk
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