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 Celli Family

Professional German musicians – 12 cellists including 4 SA cellists and a soprano!
17 March 2012
Odeion
19:30

The Celli Family is a group of 12 professional international cellists who are based in southern Germany. Some of them are prizewinners from music competitions, who’s aim it is to realize a musical phenomena. They achieve this goal through a repertoire which encompasses the entire musical history from the Renaissance to the present. The aim of the cello group is to show that music has the possibility and the power to combine all differences between human beings by staying under the greatness of the music itself. Each individual of the group, besides having the responsibility towards the group, must be able to “let go” and to create space for listening. Only in this way can the music become a social language, connecting across all barriers. This demands intensive co-operation, practice and repetition. The 12 cellists meet several times per year under the guidance of Prof Deckert to practice and deepen their work. The series of practice sessions culminates in a number of concerts. They have performed all over Germany and Egypt, including a very successful tour through South Africa during September 2009.

The group was formed a few years ago under the direction of the cellist Prof. Hans Eric Deckert from Denmark. He was born in Hamburg in 1927 and studied with Pablo Casals. He also worked extensively with the famous conductor, Sergiu Celibidache. He completed his extensive musical studies (cello, conducting and music theory) at the Royal Danish Music Academy in Copenhagen. Prof. Deckert has conducted and performed with various orchestras all over the world and is also the founder and first president of the Danish section of the European String Teachers Association (ESTA).

Four well known South African cellists will join the group on their South African tour, namely JP Malan, Peter Martens, Leana Alkema and Aristide du Plessis.

For more information please visit their website www.cellifamily.com .

Programme:
Villa-Lobos - Bachianas Brasileiras Nr. 5, with soprano
Piazzolla - Fuga y misterio
Kaiser-Lindemann - Variacões Brasileiras
Deckert - Canzona
Ravel - Pavane pour une infante défunte
Rachmaninoff - Vocalise
Nørgård - Dream Melodies
Keen - Starfish
Wagner - Zug zum Münster

Admission:
R120 (adults)
R80 (pensioners, students and learners)
Tickets available at Computicket.

Enquiries:
Ninette Pretorius (tel. 051 – 401 2504)
 

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