Remembering Jacqueline De Pre

Rating:
Summary: Beguiling
Review: Having just recently gotten hooked on Jackie, her music and her life, I found this video to be an amazing time capsule of some of her performances. My only complaint is that we aren't able to see complete performances of the pieces. Another reviewer mentioned the odd use of freeze frames, which I also found oddly disturbing. But the video is definitely worth it, if only to see her playing Iztak Stern's violin like a cello backstage and to see her working out a piece with William Pleeth. The footage of her and Barenboim is also outstanding, especially when we get to hear Jackie play a Clementi piece on the piano, Daniel at her side. The other complaint I have is that overall it's too short! I'd love to see more of Jackie and hear more interviews with her.

Rating:
Summary: Beguiling
Review: Having just recently gotten hooked on Jackie, her music and her life, I found this video to be an amazing time capsule of some of her performances. My only complaint is that we aren't able to see complete performances of the pieces. Another reviewer mentioned the odd use of freeze frames, which I also found oddly disturbing. But the video is definitely worth it, if only to see her playing Iztak Stern's violin like a cello backstage and to see her working out a piece with William Pleeth. The footage of her and Barenboim is also outstanding, especially when we get to hear Jackie play a Clementi piece on the piano, Daniel at her side. The other complaint I have is that overall it's too short! I'd love to see more of Jackie and hear more interviews with her.

Rating:
Summary: The film is great but...
Review: I have been an admirer of Jackie's ever since I heard her play her famous rendition of Elgar's Cello Concerto, and I believe that this movie is a real credit to her memory. It has wonderful, loving interviews from Bill Pleeth, her cello teacher, as well as Sir John Barbirolli (who conducted her first recording of Elgar), and interviews from Jackie herself, telling about her early cello experiences and studies with Bill Pleeth. The movie features clips of Jackie playing the Brahms Sonata in F Major, the Beethoen Sonata in A, Offenbach duets with Pleeth, The Elgar Concerto, Schubert's Trout Quintet with husband Daniel Barenboim, Itzhak Perlman and others, Beethoven's Ghost Trio, and short songs written for her by her mother Iris. It is a beautifully done and affectionate memory to, in many opinions, the greatest cellist of her generation. I am a cellist myself, so I know music pretty well, but I know that someone with limited or no musical knowledge will get a lot out of this movie, because it is done with a tenderness that can get through to all people.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant yet so tragic
Review: It took me 4 months to get this VHS. I had never heard of Jacqueline du Pre until the movie. It was hard to understand such talent cut short at 28 years old with MS. Having just watched the Jerry Louis Telethon and having a form of MS myself (Myasthenia Gravis) which fortunatly is under control - I simply had to watch this remarkable "EMI Classic" again. I have to agree with other comments that it was to short - but remarkable non the less. Probably the greatest Cellist of the century or at any time it is a marvelous tribute. Needless to say I have the book and several CD's. I wish there was more to see.

Rating:
Summary: The film is great but...
Review: it's rather badly edited. The footage is great to watch, but the film often freezes on Du Pre near the ends of pieces, as you hear the audio finish out the music. It's a rather strange effect, often leaving Du Pre with a goofy look on her face.