Alexander Fleming vs Jacqueline du Pré
Two music prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
The record, side by side
| Alexander Fleming | Jacqueline du Pré | |
| Field | Music | Music |
| Sub-field | Musician | Classical |
| Born | 1881 | 1945 |
| Died | 1955 | 1987 |
| Country of birth | SCT | United Kingdom |
| Star sign | Leo | Aquarius |
Who they are
Alexander Fleming
In September 1928, a Scottish bacteriologist returned from his summer holiday to a cluttered laboratory at St Mary's Hospital in London, and noticed something unusual on a petri dish he had left behind. A mould had contaminated one of his cultures of Staphylococcus bacteria — and around the mould, the bacteria were dead. Alexander Fleming did not immediately grasp that he had just made the most important medical discovery of the twentieth century. But he was curious enough to look more carefully, and careful enough not to throw the dish away. That decision would eventually…
Full biography of Alexander Fleming →
Jacqueline du Pré
There is a recording made in 1965, when Jacqueline du Pré was nineteen years old, that classical musicians still use as a reference point for what the cello can express. She was performing Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor — a late, elegiac work that Elgar wrote in 1919, after the destruction of the First World War, and which had been considered a minor piece of his output until du Pré played it. Her performance — large-scaled, deeply personal, technically sovereign — transformed the concerto's reputation overnight. It is now considered one of the great…
Full biography of Jacqueline du Pré →
What they share
- Both are held here under Music.
- Their lifetimes overlap.
Where they part
- Born in different countries: SCT and United Kingdom.
- 64 years separate their births (1881 and 1945).
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Alexander Fleming or Jacqueline du Pré?
- Alexander Fleming. Alexander Fleming was born in 1881, Jacqueline du Pré in 1945.
- What field is each of them in?
- Alexander Fleming is filed under Music (Musician). Jacqueline du Pré is filed under Music (Classical).
- Were they contemporaries?
- Yes - their lifetimes overlap.