Time for a bit of class I reckon! Today would have been the 85th birthday of one of the greatest classical performers of all time, the cellist Jacqueline du Pré, OBE.
Hers was indeed a unique talent. A teenage prodigy in an era when the Beatles and the Stones were predominant, and star of the Proms for eight years running, Miss du Pré performed with the very best in that classical world. She collaborated with Sir Malcolm Sargent, Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Adrian Boult, Zubin Mehta and Leonard Bernstein, and she married the renowned conductor Daniel Barenboim. Hers might have been the pinnacle of worldwide success in her field.
But it was of course for her sad decline in health due to multiple sclerosis (and eventual death at the tragically young age of 42 in 1987) that she garnered most public attention.
Ten years after after her death a film of her life, Hilary and Jackie (based upon the book A Genius In The Family), starring Emily Watson caused huge controversy as it portrayed the late diva as an adulteress and emotionally (as well as physically) unstable, which her family and ex-husband Barenboim dispute furiously to this day.
Despite all this, her incredible musical talents live on. Enjoy...
Jacqueline du Pré official website
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