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
Trio du Cap Classique

with

Liesl Stoltz (flute), Anmari vd Westhuizen (cello) & François du Toit (piano)

1 August 2019

Odeion

19:30

Liesl Stoltz started studying the flute with Éva Tamássy and furthered her studies in France with Shigenori Kudo, Pierre-Yves Artaud and Chantal Debushy at the École Normale de Musique de Paris: Alfred Cortot. She later trained in Italy with maestro Peter-Lukas Graf at the Accademia Internazionale Superiore di Musica: Lorenzo Perosi. Her album Explorations – South African Flute Music won the category “creative output” in the annual Humanities and Social Sciences awards (2017). Other awards include first prize in the 12th Friedrich Kuhlau International Flute Competition (Germany), 3rd place in the 2007 International Flute Competition (Timisoara, Romania) and finalist in the 2005 Leonardo de Lorenzo International Flute Competition (Italy), to name a few. Liesl has performed in both South Africa and Europe. She lectures at UCT and plays a Yamaha 900 series 14k flute. She is a Yamaha South Africa Artist since May 2018.

Anmari van der Westhuizen graduated from the University of Stellenbosch (BMusHons), from the Mozarteum, Salzburg (Grosses Diplom), and from the Hochschule für Musik (Cologne) with Maria Kliegel (Konzertexamen). In 2013 Anmari received her PhD from the University of Pretoria. She has won prestigious competitions including the ATKV Forte Competition, the SABC Competition and the Oude Meester Competition. She performed in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Faroe Islands, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

François du Toit is an Associate Professor of Piano and Head of Practical Studies at the UCT. He completed an BMusHons at UCT under Laura Searle. Also holding diplomas up to Fellowship level from the Trinity College of Music London, he studied for the Solistendiplom at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater (Hannover, Germany). Francois took top prizes in the 1991 Hannover Music Competition, the 1992 Rotterdam and 1993 Marsala Internationals, and the 1994 International Maria Callas Competition (Athens). François has over 40 concertos in his repertoire. He is constantly in demand as accompanist for visiting artists. In July 2006 he released a solo CD comprising works of Bach-Busoni, Haydn, Mendelssohn and Chopin. In 2010 TwoPianists record label released his recording of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 and the Rachmaninoff Paganini Variations. He has given recitals and masterclasses in America, Asia and Europe and undertook concert tours to Paris, Vienna and Cardiff.

PROGRAMME

  • Hummel: Trio Op. 78 in A major
  • Villa Lobos: Assobio a Jato
  • Gaubert: Three Watercolours
  • Menselssohn: Trio in D minor, Op. 49

ADMISSION

  • R130 (adults)
  • *R70 (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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