In September 1963 the Beatles and the Rolling Stones performed in the Great Pop Prom at the Royal Albert Hall and André Tchaikowsky, a 28-year-old Polish composer and pianist, gave a piano recital in Carlisle for the North Cumberland Recital Club. The final item on his programme was Ravel's brilliant but unsettling Gaspard de la Nuit. The middle movement of the piece, Le Gibet, depicts the corpse of a hanged man swinging on a gibbet.
On a concert programme owned by Phyllis Simpson and recently donated along with many others to Carlisle Music Society, André Tchaikowsky wrote, 'To Miss P. C. Simpson, with the grateful remembrance of her hospitality in Carlisle.'
The tragedy of Tchaikowsky's early life when he was confined in the Warsaw Ghetto and suffered the loss of his mother who died in Treblinka, returned in middle age. Sadly he was not destined to enjoy a long life of performance and composition; he died of cancer at the age of 46. In his will he left his body to medical research, but he made a stipulation regarding the future of his skull. In what some might regard as a macabre gesture he donated it to the Royal Shakespeare Company, asking that it be used as a prop on stage. The skull finally achieved fame in 2008 when it was held by David Tennant in his portrayal of Hamlet.
André Tchaikowsky might have been gratified to know that a further commemoration of his skull was made by the Royal Mail in 2011 when six stamps were issued to mark the 50th anniversary of the Royal Shakespeare Company. One of the stamps featured David Tennant holding Tchaikowsky's skull.
Autographed concert programmes from the North Cumberland Recital Club (1951-1966) can be viewed at the Carlisle Archives Centre.
On a concert programme owned by Phyllis Simpson and recently donated along with many others to Carlisle Music Society, André Tchaikowsky wrote, 'To Miss P. C. Simpson, with the grateful remembrance of her hospitality in Carlisle.'
The tragedy of Tchaikowsky's early life when he was confined in the Warsaw Ghetto and suffered the loss of his mother who died in Treblinka, returned in middle age. Sadly he was not destined to enjoy a long life of performance and composition; he died of cancer at the age of 46. In his will he left his body to medical research, but he made a stipulation regarding the future of his skull. In what some might regard as a macabre gesture he donated it to the Royal Shakespeare Company, asking that it be used as a prop on stage. The skull finally achieved fame in 2008 when it was held by David Tennant in his portrayal of Hamlet.
André Tchaikowsky might have been gratified to know that a further commemoration of his skull was made by the Royal Mail in 2011 when six stamps were issued to mark the 50th anniversary of the Royal Shakespeare Company. One of the stamps featured David Tennant holding Tchaikowsky's skull.
Autographed concert programmes from the North Cumberland Recital Club (1951-1966) can be viewed at the Carlisle Archives Centre.
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