Page 194 - Alison Balsom Quiet City FULL BOOK

recording engineers; compare, say, the balance on her deservedly famous 1965
recording of the Elgar concerto to that on Stephen Isserlis’s 1989 disc.

If you didn’t know du Pré’s biography and listened to these discs blind, you’d be bowled over by
the exuberance and energy of the playing. A shame, then, that Warner Classics have opted for
such sepulchral packaging and design, du Pré’s image on the back of the booklet fading into a
black, inky void. One suspects that she’d have preferred something brighter and more uplifting.
Accentuate the positive by wallowing in a 1964 recording of Delius’s neglected Cello Concerto,
du Pré and conductor Malcolm Sargent giving the piece shape and charm. Why isn’t this work
played more often? Try this composite version of Strauss’s Don Quixote from 1968, most of it
conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, a few bars salvaged from unsuccessful sessions recorded with an
unenthused Otto Klemperer in charge. You won’t spot the joins, and the performance is witty and
involving.

A 1970 Dvořák concerto, taped in Chicago with du Pré’s husband Daniel Barenboim conducting,
sounds fresher and better balanced in this new remastering, though my favourite concertante
discs are a pairing of the Schumann and Saint-Saens concertos (again conducted by
Barenboim), and big-boned readings of Haydn’s D major concerto and the Monn G minor with
the LSO under Barbirolli.

The rest is chamber music. Two discs of 1961 BBC radio recordings are in good mono sound;
gems include du Pré teamed with her teacher and “cello daddy” William Pleeth in one of
Couperin’s Les Goûts réunis suites and a pair of Bach suites. Cycles of Beethoven piano trios
and cello sonatas are deservedly well-known, du Pré’s sparkiness matched by Zukerman and
Barenboim in the trios. Her last studio recording, a coupling of the Chopin and Franck sonatas,
was taped in 1971 after du Pré had not touched the cello for six months. You’d never know. It’s
the same with a live 1972 recording of Tchaikovsky’s large-scale Op.50 Piano Trio, the funereal
coda quietly devastating. Self-recommending, then; the original EMI sleeve designs are
reproduced and there’s a useful booklet essay from Tully Potter.

• Jacqueline du Pre on Amazon