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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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Odeion Sinfonia Concert

8 September 2019
Odeion
16:00

The Odeion Sinfonia will be performing on the 8th of September 2019 at 16:00 in the Odeion. This concert will be presented in loving memory of Derek and Anne Ochse. The programme will consist of two double concerti and two Themes & Variations. The two double concerti were specially included to give an opportunity to young musicians playing in the orchestra to perform as soloists.

The Odeion Sinfonia is a strings-only orchestra housed in the Odeion School of Music comprising string students studying at the OSM and string members of the Free State Youth Orchestra. The orchestra is under the direction of the highly acclaimed cellist and chamber musician, Anmari van der Westhuizen (cellist of the Odeion String Quartet) who has more than thirty years of experience in playing and conducting chamber music. The principal aims of this orchestra are to provide excellent training and valuable experience in string and ensemble playing, to adequately prepare string students for orchestral playing, to present them with numerous ensemble and orchestral concert playing opportunities and to generally promote quality string and ensemble playing.

The following musicians will feature as soloists:
Pieter Joubert & Maria Yazbek (violin), and Chris van Zyl & Ashlin Grobbelaar (cello).

PROGRAMME

  • Vivaldi: Concerto Alla Rustica for string orchestra RV 151
  • Bach: Concerto for two violins in D minor, BWV 1043
  • Vivaldi: Concerto for two cellos in G minor, RV 531
  • Glazunov: Theme and Variations for string orchestra in G minor Op. 97
  • Arensky: Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky Op. 35a

ADMISSION
Free

ENQUIRIES
Ninette Pretorius (tel. 051 401 2504 / pretoriusn@ufs.ac.za)

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