你好 I don’t remember what drew me to this music. Someone gave it to me as a present and it sat in my record bin for weeks before I even touched it. I had never heard of Elgar, and was skeptical about English romantic music. As far as I knew, the influence of Wagner and Stravinsky had passed over, leaving English music untouched, stuck in a Victorian groove. Never mind the Beatles and Rolling Stones, I’d always thought of the British as formal, overly conservative and emotionally repressed, having a stiff upper lip, so I wasn’t expecting much.

But the minute I heard that bow drawn across the strings, and rich, faintly nasal sound of the cello, I was hooked. Every phrase is alive and brimming with feeling. At times this is a fierce piece; sometimes it seems almost too much, and then there are passages that are almost whispered, coming straight from someone’s soul. It is Elgar’s last large work and his greatest; written to commemorate the First World War, the loss of life – the most enormous the world had seen up to that time. But even more, Elgar was mourning the passing of a way of life. The world had become industrialized, impersonal and Britain was no longer the center.

Don’t get the wrong impression, this is no dirge. It is a heaving, muscular piece, dark in places, ringing with vitality. Every single note counts, every sweeping phrase feels inevitable. In an instant the tempos can change from tempestuous to meditative musing and then back again. It doesn’t matter; you are carried along for the ride and you don’t want it to end. You just can’t imagine it being written any other way.

What in my player now: Elgar: Cello Concerto/Jacqueline du Pre, Cello - London Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Barbirolli, conductor - EMI CDC 7473292

It’s astounding that du Pre was only twenty when she made this recording. In spite of that there’s a maturity, and a deep emotionality that cannot be denied. Every phrase she plays is perfect and full of feeling. Not for a second does she overdo the intensity. Which explains why the recording has sold almost a million copies. It has never been out of the catalog since it was made (1965).

Even though Du Pre opened the world’s ears to Elgar, and the concerto has been performed countless time all over the planet, her performance, particularly of the slow movement and the epilogue have never been surpassed.

As astonishing as this performance is, it would have been even more incredible to hear how she would have played it in her later years. Unfortunately we’ll never know what her mature interpretation would have been. A few years after this recording a recurring numbness in her fingers led to a diagnosis of muscular dystrophy and one of the century’s greatest cellists was silenced.