Years
2019 2018
Quartet For The End Of Time
2018-10-25

Quartet For The End Of Time

By Olivier Messiaen (1908 – 1992)

25 October 2018

Odeion

19:30

“THE IDEA OF THE END OF TIME AS THE END OF PAST AND FUTURE AND THE BEGINNING OF ETERNITY”

Anmari van der Westhuizen and Samson Diamond (members of the renowned Odeion String Quartet), will join with the award-winning soloists Grethe Nöthling and Danrè Strydom to perform one of the 20th century’s most compelling chamber music works, Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. These musicians need no introduction to Bloemfontein audiences.

Composed while he was a prisoner of war, Messiaen's Quartet has continually wowed audiences since its creation. The oppressive conditions within which the work was conceived - set against the backdrop of wartime conditions in Nazi Germany - contribute to the work’s inner narrative. In this unsettling time of global political and social uncertainty, we aim to reframe this work from the past in order to contemplate the present. Music woven together with other art forms elicit and explain a range of emotions where words often fail.

A selection of striking WWII photos will be projected behind the musicians - reflecting the theme and history of the composition.

About the composition
Olivier Messiaen (1908 - 92)
Quatour pour le fin du temps (1940 - 41)

Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time was written in perhaps the most incongruous spot any great score has been composed in: an unheated barrack in Stalag VIII-A, a German prisoner-of-war camp, during the second winter of World War 2. Messiaen wrote this mystical quartet for the instruments available in the camp (clarinet, violin, cello, and piano) in a setting that is arguably among the least conducive for creative work.

The quartet is Messiaen's musical depiction of and rumination on Revelation 10:1-7, which the composer included as a heading to the score:

“I saw a mighty angel descending from heaven, clad in mist, having around his head a rainbow. His face was like the sun, his feet like pillars of fire. He placed his right foot on the sea, his left on the earth, and standing thus on the sea and the earth, he lifted his hand toward heaven and swore by Him who liveth forever and ever, saying: "There shall be time no longer, but at the day of the trumpet of the seventh angel the mystery of God shall be consummated."

ADMISSION

  • R120 (adults)
  • *R80 (pensioners)
  • *R70 (UFS staff)
  • *R50 (students, learners and block bookings of 10+)

Tickets available at Computicket or online at http://online.computicket.com/web/

*Please note that tickets for pensioners, students, learners and UFS staff can only be purchased at a Computicket outlet (Shoprite Checkers) or at the doors since a valid card or ID has to be presented to qualify for the above-mentioned discount.

ENQUIRIES
Ninette Pretorius (tel. 051 401 2504)


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Franklin Larey piano recital

Franklin Larey piano recital
5 May 2011
Odeion
19:30

Hailed as one of South Africa’s leading pianists, Franklin Larey, is acclaimed for his performances of works by especially Brahms, Mozart, Scriabin and Ravel. His piano teachers include Bruce Gardiner, Laura Searle, Frank Weinstock and Richard Fields.

Larey teaches at UCT, where he was appointed as Director of the South African College of Music from 2002-07. He appears regularly as a recitalist, soloist, accompanist and has worked with conductors such as Isaiah Jackson, Gabriel Chmura, Bernard Gueller, Victor Yampolsky and Lesley Dunner. Of his appearance with the San Jose Symphony, the San Jose Mercury News wrote, "When Franklin Larey turned to soft poetry, time stood still, and the audience held its breath for an eternity. His slow movement was sheer ecstasy - clear, measured, lyrical."

Franklin won several awards including first prize at the 1991 Young Chang International Piano Competition and third prize at the 1996 New Orleans International Piano Competition. In 2003 he was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Researcher Award and spent six months in residence at his alma mater, the University of Cincinnati. During this time he also performed at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage (Washington DC). He has received several honours for his work as a concert pianist and for his contribution to music in South Africa. In 2003 the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music honoured him with a Distinguished Alumnus Award. In South Africa, he has served on the National Arts Council, a documentary of his career was aired on satellite television and he featured in South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council’s published series, Living Treasures.

He currently serves as Director of the summer session of the Adamant Music School in Vermont (USA) and in 2010 he performed at Carnegie Hall (NY) at an anniversary concert of the school.

Programme:
W.A. Mozart: Sonata in B flat major, K.570
J. Brahms: Three Intermezzi, Op. 117
C. Debussy: La fille aux cheveux de lin: Feux d’artifice
F. Chopin: Nocturne in B major, Op. 62, No. 1
H. Hofmeyr: Notturno
S. Prokofiev: Sonata No. 7 in B flat major, Op. 83

Admission:
R120 (adults)
R80 (pensioners, students and learners)
Tickets available at Computicket (at all Shoprite / Checkers shops, Mimosa Mall and Waterfront information desks) and at the doors.

Enquiries:
Ninette Pretorius (tel. 051 - 401 2504)
 

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