On Wednesday 16th November Rebel of the Keys will be screening at Pontio as part of an event coordinated in partnership with The Welsh National Opera and Bafta Cymru.
In making the film it was a real journey of discovery uncovering the life of André Tchaikowsky, and we had the privilege of meeting and interviewing some of the world’s most renowned musicians. We weren’t the first people to go on that journey though, back in the 1980’s David Ferré went on a research journey of his own and he left us with a quite wonderful treasure trove of interviews he had made audio recordings of. David bequeathed those audio recordings to the André Tchaikowsky Archive at The University of Warsaw, and, as the photo above depicts, musicologist Anastasia Belina-Johnson was able to study all the transcripts and listen to the audio recordings as part of her research for the film and for the book A Musician Divided.
The recordings include interviews with the librettist John O’Brien, Conductor David Zinman, Pianist Peter Frankl, and most crucially for us André’s agent and close friend Terry Harrison. Terry had passed away before we started making the film but thanks to David’s recordings we were able to use extracts of Terry’s voice in the film.
David Ferré continues to research André Tchaikowsky to this day and posts all his findings on his website dedicated to Tchaikowsky.