Film-maker's talent equal to the occasion

By WILLIAM DART

One of the heroes of Opus Arte's new Jacqueline du Pre DVD is film-maker Christopher Nupen. Watching the cellist in the Elgar Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim, one is continually struck by the way in which Nupen illuminates this special occasion.

A snatch of a tune-up before the first chord, Barenboim flexing himself before raising his baton or the nodded go-ahead from cellist to conductor before the concerto's slow movement - these are images to relive and savour.

At times Nupen's camera almost seems to join the music-making when it surprises du Pre in close-up for some pizzicato chords or uses an eloquent tracking shot to highlight the cellist in the slow movement.

The du Pre who has become a legend beyond her time, free from any Hilary and Jackie romancing, springs forth in the Finale, smiling almost manically when she sets bow to string, hair flailing behind her.

The performance is a living historical document, with a greater musical intimacy than the cellist's first recording of the work with Sir John Barbirolli, one of the many characters you meet during the documentary that is part of this DVD package.

While the 1981 colour footage adds little to the original 1967 black-and-white doco (du Pre, obviously affected by her multiple sclerosis, musing over fingering problems is no substitute for her spirited duets with teacher William Pleeth at the beginning of her career), a later performance of Beethoven's Ghost Trio is a generous if flawed bonus.

It's here that the filming occasionally gets in the way of the music, although Barenboim's hands on the keys are always riveting and du Pre's face, by turns ecstatic, dreamy and determined, adds a dimension that makes this performance unique.

* Jacqueline du Pre in Portrait (Opus Arte CN0902 D)