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
The Immortal Beloved

Odeion School of Music musicians - cellist Anmari van der Westhuizen and clarinetist Danrè Strydom - will be joined by acclaimed pianist Ben Schoeman to perform some of the greatest works composed for this chamber grouping. This is, arguably, one of the most beautiful chamber music combinations and the group will perform some of the magnificent compositions written by Beethoven, Brahms and Zemlinsky. The trio will also be shining a light on South African composer, Hendrik Hofmeyr’s Tango, It takes Two. An evening to remember with The Immortal Beloved.

The South African pianist and Steinway Artist Ben Schoeman is a senior lecturer in music at the University of Pretoria. He won several awards, including the first grand prize in the 11th UNISA International Piano Competition (2008), the gold medal in the Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition (London, 2009), the Standard Bank Young Artist Award (2011), the contemporary music prize at the Cleveland International Piano Competition (USA, 2013), and the Huberte Rupert Prize (2016). He has given solo, chamber music and concerto performances at numerous prestigious concert halls internationally. He has performed with numerous conductors, including Nicholas Cleobury, Carlos Izcaray, James Judd, Gérard Korsten, Theodore Kuchar, Diego Masson, En Shao, Yasuo Shinozaki, Arjan Tien and Conrad van Alphen. He studied in Pretoria, Imola, Florence and London with renowned professors such as Joseph Stanford, Louis Lortie, Michel Dalberto, Boris Petrushansky, Ronan O’Hora and Eliso Virsaladze. Ben obtained a doctorate in music from City, University of London and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Danrè Strydom has established herself as one of South Africa’s premier solo, chamber and orchestral musicians through her global concert experience. She began her musical training in Namibia and after attending the Interlochen Arts Camp (USA), she began her formal studies with Heinrich Armer (UFS). She furthered her studies at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where she worked with renowned clarinetists Eli Eban and Eric Hoeprich. She holds two master’s degrees in Clarinet and Bass Clarinet Performance from the Royal Conservatory (Ghent University) and recently completed her PhD at the OSM. Danrè studied conducting with various established conductors, including the late Chris Dowdeswell and Dirk Brosse. After playing clarinet/bass clarinet for the award-winning Brussels Philharmonic from 2009 to 2013, she accepted a position as woodwind lecturer at the OSM.

Anmari van der Westhuizen (cello) 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. Anmari has performed in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Faroe Islands, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

PROGRAMME

  • Beethoven: Trio in B-flat major Op. 11
  • Brahms: Trio in A minor Op. 114
  • Zemlinsky: Trio in D minor Op. 3
  • Hofmeyr: It takes Two (1. Tango Amabile; 2. Tango Lugubre)

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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