Years
2019 2018
Months
February March April May June July August September October November December
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
Christmas Concert

Sunday 1 December 2019

Odeion ~ 16:00

Admission: FREE

Josef Rheinberger (1839 – 1901)
Suite for Organ Trio and Strings, Op. 149

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 – 1921)
Oratorio de Noël, Op. 12

In the light of this year’s advent time, the Odeion School of Music in collaboration with the Free State Symphony Orchestra, will present a Christmas Concert with various soloists and mainly string orchestra. The centre piece will be the Oratorio de Noël Op. 12 (Christmas Oratorio) from Camille Saint-Saëns, composed for five vocal soloists, mixed choir, strings, organ and harp. It was first performed at the Madeleine church on 25 December 1858 in Paris. This early work of the composer resembles a distinct lyricism of 19th-century French church music. It is sung in Latin, based on texts from the Old and New Testaments, the Psalms and Gospels, as well as the Catholic Christmas liturgy. The chamber music-like instrumentation with the exclusion of wind instruments, lyrical solo parts, and a modest choral part combine to create a general pastoral mood. The Suite for Organ Trio and String Orchestra fits into this programme with its pastoral character and chamber music setting.

The initiative for this concert is not only to offer the community of Bloemfontein a classical Christmas Concert, but it also serves as an educational project in which vocal students will form the choir of the oratorio, and string students will be part of the orchestra. These students share the stage with professional singers and instrumentalist and therefore gain first-hand experience of their profession. The Odeion String Quartet will lead the string sections. The soloists of the Rheinberger Suite are Jan Beukes (organ), Anmarie van der Westhuizen (Cello) and Samson Diamond (violin). A unique combination of vocal soloists sing in the Saint-Saëns Oratorio with Kimmy Skota (soprano), Teresa de Wit (mezzo-soprano), Mariëtte Pitout (contralto), Albertus Engelbrecht (tenor) and Thesele Kemane (baritone). Both these works will be performed under the baton of Alexander Fokkens.

ENQUIRIES
Ninette Pretorius
+27 51 401 2504
pretoriusn@ufs.ac.za

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

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