It would be thought that Edward Elgar set the standard in 1928, when he recorded his Cello Concerto with the eccentric Beatrice Harrison (she once recorded Rimsky-Korsakov's Chanson Hindu in her garden, forming a duet with a nightingale). Nevertheless, the studio recording by Jacqueline du Pré and John Barbirolli from 1965 has become a benchmark against which all subsequent performances are measured.
Nevertheless, both du Pré and Barbirolli have been criticized for their somewhat excessive approach: as if both cared more about the spirit than the letter of the score. In Christopher Nupen's TV documentary, however, Barbirolli defended this free-spirited approach with the words: 'I think it's great, because when you're young you have to indulge yourself in everything, right? How else can you get old? ' In her recordings with husband Barenboim, du Pré would only become more free. In particular, the 1970 recording made in Philadelphia sounds like it wants to erase all barlines. In this context, Du Pré's biographer Elisabeth Wilson spoke of du Pré's ability to 'stop the clock in her musicmaking'. About a certain dramatic moment in the first part of the concert, du Pré is said to have said to her student Sandy Bailey: 'When you eventually achieve the top E and you are overtaken by the huge orchestral sound, you must make the audience feel that you have moved the universe '(also taken from Wilson). The present live recording by du Pré and Barbirolli from 1967 forms, as it were, the 'missing link' between the earlier studio recording and the later recordings with Barenboim. The present CD is the first to re-release this Prague-recorded performance. (HJ)more
