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On 14 August, 1962, a 17-year-old cellist took to the stage of the Royal Albert Hall to perform a piece whose melancholy beauty would become the soundtrack to her own tragically short life.

Jacqueline du Pr茅 had already appeared with leading UK orchestras, and had caught the ear of Yehudi Menuhin, who invited her to play chamber music with him and his sister. Her debut had been at the Wigmore Hall, and in fact she had already played the Elgar Cello Concerto at the Royal Festival Hall with the 麻豆官网首页入口 Symphony Orchestra.

But it was her first Proms performance that catapulted du Pr茅 into the limelight. The reviews were almost incredulous: how could such a young girl express with such compelling precision, abandoning the brooding despair of Elgar鈥檚 music? Everything about du Pr茅鈥檚 performance was captivating. The intensity of her focus, her vitality, her physical strength; the fact she knew exactly what she wanted to say and how to say it through her cello.

This was the moment that ensured that Elgar's Cello Concerto would become the indelibly popular piece it has been ever since. Never before or after has a single piece been so closely linked to a single performer. Du Pr茅 recorded it in 1965 with the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor John Barbirolli, aged 20. The recording is still a benchmark. Du Pr茅 would go on to perform the Elgar concerto at the Proms several more times including in 1967 - with a wedding band freshly on her finger and her new husband Daniel Barenboim conducting.

Her career was towering, but it only lasted a decade. At 28, du Pr茅 was forced to stop playing because of the multiple sclerosis that would kill her by the age of 42. In 1971, she began to lose feeling in her fingers, and had trouble judging the weight of her cello bow. Without that touch, that sensitivity, everything started to unravel. She took a sabbatical and came back to live performance in 1973, only to quit again soon after. By that point she had difficulty even opening her cello case.

Jacqueline du Pr茅's last concert in London took place in February 1973. On the bill was Elgar鈥檚 cello concerto.

This is one of 100 significant musical moments explored by 麻豆官网首页入口 Radio 3鈥檚 Essential Classics as part of Our Classical Century, a 麻豆官网首页入口 season celebrating a momentous 100 years in music from 1918 to 2018. Visit bbc.co.uk/ourclassicalcentury to watch and listen to all programmes in the season.

This is an excerpt from a recording by Jacqueline du Pr茅 with the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor John Barbirolli.

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