Vintage Du Pre Lost Recording

[Ted Kendall]

There certainly was an extraordinary disconnect in parts of the Beeb in eighties - I was shocked to find, when doing VT at Television Centre on my graduate course, that VT engineers were strictly prohibited from commenting on programme material - to do so was a disciplinary matter. No such divide in Radio or TS, fortunately - until some whizz-kid producer pompously informed me that I was "not paid to comment on programme material". My offence was to criticise the balance in a documentary programme about the collaboration between a composer and a poet. A piece of archive speech was noisy, so the producer presented it over music mixed loud enough to drown the noise. The fact that said music at that level also rendered the speech unintelligible on first listening was apparently irrelevant - in vain did I point out that the audience gets one shot at understanding what's said. Mind you, the last I heard of this genius was to see him spouting rubbish about how much better DAB sounded than FM..."CD quality", indeed!

[emeritus]

Thinking back, the speaker in the programme I heard was referring to cans of 16mm film rather than videotape, but I understand that at that time it was the BBC's practice to copy what were considered to be important videotaped recordings onto 16mm film for archiving and for distribution abroad.

[Ted Kendall]

This was standard practice for years - incompatible line standards, the enormous cost of standards conversion of any quality and the complexities of Quadruplex VT ensured that the safest export medium for TV programmes was 16mm com-opt - or sepmag if you were lucky. The same arguments applied to archiving 405-line, plus the fact that it enabled a £50 reel of VT to be wiped and re-used - no small matter in the 1960s...

[paulsherwin]

Originally Posted by Tom_I

An interesting documentary, if a little obsequious in places, but it didn't do anything to change my opinion of Jacqueline du Pre. I always found her style too histrionic, and her use of vibrato excessive.

A musical legend, for sure, but not to my taste, I'm afraid. Each to their own, I suppose.

I always wondered what would have happened to JdP had she not developed her illness. Her reputation is really based on the Elgar recording she made aged 20. It's a gripping, very muscular interpretation, and astonishing from a soloist who was barely out of her teens. I don't know how versatile and durable her performance style would have been in the long run though. Like Buddy Holly and Jimi Hendrix in different fields, her legendary status has benefitted from dying young at the peak of her powers.

[barretter]

She didn't die "at the height of her powers". She had to endure her debilitating illness for 14 years and died at the age of 42, thirty years ago this month.

[paulsherwin]

Sorry, I phrased that badly. She lost the ability to play at the height of her powers. She struggled on in failing health for a lot longer

[barretter]

She began to lose the feeling in her fingers when she was 26 and stopped playing entirely when she was 28.

[paulsherwin]

Yes, I know that.

[cheerfulcharlie]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

Yes, I know that.

"No good deed goes unpunished"

[barretter]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

Yes, I know that.

So what does "struggled on for a long time" refer to? Playing or living?
"Losing the ability to play" is not the same as "dying".

[paulsherwin]

I'm a bit puzzled that you seem to have taken offence at a very innocent observation made in passing. I was simply curious as to what would have been her reputation now if she had continued as a cello soloist into her 60s, rather than having her career cut short at a young age after a relatively small number of legendary recordings and performances. I have no opinion on JdP as a person.

I apologise for anything I've written that has upset you - no offence was intended.

[ms660]

JDP might have been even better at expression had she lived to sixty plus and in reasonable health....Sir Tom certainly was..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5_pidiEEWs

Lawrence.

[dave walsh]

Gosh that is good Lawrence. I wonder why I haven't seen it before Yes Jeff B remains extraordinarily cool [from when it meant "laid back and extraordinary"] not just a lazy replacement for "good" or "yes".
The affect on both genders when he was 19 was even more profound eg Jeff's Boogie and especially the solo on "Shapes of Things, partner to Beck's Bolero" if you like see like what I mean like! Even his name seemed other worldly to us then as we didn't know that "beck" is just Yorkshire a for stream or brook His name was so good that someone else used the second half years later. As far as I know he is very unassuming. I recall that he stuck it out with a [once famous] model for a couple of decades until she declined and filled the house with endless stray cats I think that's a real fact!

Both he and Sir T are "class acts" as they say [unfortunately]. Love letters is featured in "The Last Post" [BBC1] currently with it's obscure radio gear. Tom Jones also did an unexpected but heartfelt verson of "What Good Am I ?" [Dylan] in much the same manner [Later BBC2] but he wasn't talking about his musical gift. I would have liked to see Jaqueline DP play with Nigel Kennedy but then I would have wanted to see Amy Winehouse live on and the great Kathleen Ferrier survive! One of those deaths should have been avoidable

Dave W

I think it's very easy to get wound up over senseless tragedies Barretter. Any life is as important as any other but it doesn't always feel like that...and Paul is one of good guys after all!

[Ted Kendall]

Might have beens...perhaps it's just enough to be grateful that they were.

Cantelli, Neveu, Brain, Hoffnung, Clark, Ferrier, Jackie - whom the gods love they take to themselves early.

Incidentally, Jacqueline du Pre gave a sensational performance of the Elgar concerto with Sargent in the 1963 Proms season and was cheered to the echo - as the recording made by Transcription Service attests. Had she not been stricken, she might indeed have been jamming with our Nige - anybody else see him at the Proms a few years ago in some Chinese silk get-up, playing the Elgar violin concerto like an angel and then giving the only bleeped Proms interval interview in history?

[dave walsh]

Yes I did actually-you couldn't forget the attire in a hurry! I like his Hendrix covers. There was a Documentary about his life in Poland/Ukraine? Literally very down to earth and so popular with the locals.

Dave W

[emeritus]

I don't know if it was the same one I went to, where, because travel was severely disrupted, he started 30 minutes late for the benefit of the many people who had been delayed. Myself and my wife had only just made the advertised start time, but my son (who had bought the tickets) ran all the way from Liverpool Street station to the RAH and, although arriving what would have been 25 mins late, was able to see the complete performance. We were up in the gods, so I couldn't really see what he was wearing clearly, but it certainly wasn't conventional! It was indeed an excellent performance.