There’s something creepy, even sick, in the way the British music industry and press has made a fetish out of the careers of female artists who died tragically, Jacqueline du Pré and Kathleen Ferrier in particular. In the wider world you can see the same phenomenon at work regarding the late Princess Diana. Ferrier, to put it mildly, was an acquired artistic taste, but there’s no question that du Pré was an inspirational artist, and her battle with multiple sclerosis (and I speak from close personal experience) was a heartbreaking and terrible thing–never mind the loss to the artistic world, which to be frank, isn’t really the point when considered against the simple fact of a young life cut cruelly short. After all, there has been no shortage of excellent cellists before or since, and this endless, ghoulish milking of her personal tragedy in an effort to appease the insatiable demands of her cult members (and to make a quick buck in the process) can only further obscure her genuine musical achievements.
This release is a case in point. Du Pré recorded the Elgar Cello Concerto twice commercially, and her EMI recording with Barbirolli is rightly regarded as a classic. It has been continuously available since the day it was issued, and it represents the approved interpretation of the conductor and soloist. This live version, recorded in Prague in 1967 in decent broadcast-quality stereo, is virtually identical in all important respects regarding tempos, phrasing, and overall concept. The playing of the BBC Symphony is only average; there are plenty of those small problems of coordination that invariably plague Barbirolli in his unauthorized live releases; the audience is often annoyingly present; and du Pré is so closely miked that her tone sounds unacceptably grainy, even ugly, with numerous rasping, scraping performance noises. The coupling–the first two Bach cello suites (in mono)–makes no sense, and is in no way special. Die-hard du Pré fans won’t care–and that’s really the problem in a nutshell, isn’t it?
