DU PRÉ, JACQUELINE. (1945-1987). English musician considered one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century. SP. (“Jacqueline Du Pre”). 1p. Small 4to. N.p., N.d. A black-and-white photograph by Munich photographer, Thomas Timpe, showing du Pré playing her cello, signed vertically in blue ink across her left arm, in a light portion of the image and against the darker portion of her cello.

The daughter of a pianist and instructor at London’s Royal Academy of Music, du Pré was a child prodigy whose talent, along with that of her sister, flautist Hilary du Pré, was fostered by her parents. Jacqueline won the 1960 Gold Medal of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studied with Pablo Casals and attracted the notice of Yehudi Menuhin with whom she often played. After her formal debut in London in 1961, she toured extensively playing with the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra to name but a few. She married Argentine conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim and maintained friendships with Menuhin, Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, and Pinchas Zukerman, all of whom were her frequent collaborators.

In 1973, several years after she began losing sensation in her fingers, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Her celebrated career was cut short, and she succumbed to the disease in 1987 at the age of 42. She remains most famous for her interpretation of Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E Minor. A memoir authored by her brother and sister, A Genius in the Family, was the basis for a controversial 1998 film that sensationalized Jacqueline’s private life, portraying her as having seduced her sister’s husband, British conductor Christopher Finzi.

Rare, particularly in this format.