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)


Back
Tchaikovsky with the FSSO

Tchaikovsky with the FSSO
conducted by Conrad van Alphen
Thursday 4 August 2011
Odeion
19:30

Programme:
ARENSKY Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky
TCHAIKOVSKY Suite No. 4 Op. 64 “Mozartiana”
TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto in D-major, Op. 35

Popular South African born conductor Conrad van Alphen is back to conduct the FSSO in a programme consisting mostly of music by Tchaikovsky. Russian violinist Maria Solozobova is the soloist in the composer’s Violin Concerto in D-major, Op. 35, considered by many as one of the most beautiful concertos ever written.

As artistic director and chief conductor of Sinfonia Rotterdam Conrad van Alphen has moulded this orchestra into one of the best in the Netherlands who host their own concert series in Rotterdam. Conrad also conducts Sinfonia Rotterdam in the concert series of leading Dutch halls such as the Concertgebauw in Amsterdam and De Doelen in Rotterdam, and regularly takes the orchestra on international tours.
Conrad has received excellent reviews internationally for his many recordings. To name a few labels: Telarc (works by Grieg, Dvorak and Elgar), Channel Classics (Rodrigo’s Concierto Madrigal for two guitars and orchestra  -  Editor’s choice in Gramophone Magazine), Raptus (reconstructions of recent Beethoven finds), Talent Records (Shostakovich Chamber Symphonies), Cybele (works by Karl Amadeus Hartmann) and Brilliant Classics (Bassoon concerto’s by Dupuy, Villa Lobos, Vivaldi and Othuis).

Conrad van Alphen is a popular guest conductor of various orchestras nationally and internationally.  He regularly conducts orchestras in The Netherlands, England, Germany, Bulgaria, Russia, Slovenia, Poland, South Africa, China and Mexico.

Maria Solozobova was born in Moscow. Maria Solozobova belongs to the most promising violinists of the new generation.  Maria graduated at the Moscow  Gnessin School of music for gifted children and the famous Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory (concert diploma with honours); she further studied at the Music Academy in Zürich and Basel, where she got her diploma as a soloist in 2008. She studied violin with Prof. Irina Bochkova, Prof. Evgenia Tchugaeva, Prof. Zakhar Bron und Prof. Raphael Oleg.

Maria Solozobova has worked with many leading orchestras: Basel Symphonic Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Symphonisches Orchester Zurich, Genève Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Zürich Chamber Orchestra, Moskau Chamber Orchestra, Ljubljana Philharmonic Orchestra, Roumanian Philharmonic Orchestra, and Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra.
 
She played as a soloist in many international concert halls in cities like Moscow, Vienna, Zurich and Taipei with several famous conductors. In 2009 Maria Solozobova gave a remarkable debut at the Tonhalle Zürich with Haydn, Paganini and Tchaikovsky violin concertos, together with the Zürich Chamber Orchestra directed by Maestro Muhai Tang. The applause of the audience was enthusiastic. In 2009/2010, Maria Solozobova has successfully performed as a soloist at numerous important concert halls, including the Tonhalle Zürich, Victoria Hall Geneva, Stadt Casino Basel. She further performed as a chamber musician and soloist with the Ensemble "Camerata Musica Barocca ", in the “Auditorium Wolfsberg”, in the Grand Resort Bad-Ragaz Music Festival and in the famous church of St. Peters in Zürich.
 

Admission
R120 (adults) per concert
R80 (pensioners, students and learners) per concert

Tickets @ Computicket (Shoprite / Checkers, Mimosa Mall)
Book online at www.computicket.com

Enquiries:
Ella Kotze (FSSO), tel. 051 – 401 2342 (8:00 – 13:00)
www.fsso.org.za

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful, to better understand how they are used and to tailor advertising. You can read more and make your cookie choices here. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept