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)


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Avigail Bushakevitz – Violin Recital with Ammiel Bushakevitz (piano)

7 June 2012
Odeion
19:30

Avigail Bushakevitz was born in Jerusalem (Israel) in 1988. She is currently studying violin with Sylvia Rosenberg at the Juilliard School of Music. In South Africa she studied under the guidance of Prof. Jack de Wet in Stellenbosch and Cape Town. She is the winner of the first prize in the UNISA National Strings Competition 2009. She was the only South African in the semi-finals of the 2nd UNISA International String Competition. In 2001 she was a finalist and category winner at the Sanlam Music Competition for Primary School Pupils. She has appeared numerous times as soloist in symphony concerts with various orchestras in South Africa. In 2002, 2004 and 2005 she was a finalist and winner of the strings category in the ABSA National Youth Music Competition. At the age of 16 she was the overall winner and youngest participant of the Huguenot Music Competition. In October 2006 Avigail won five prizes including 1st prize at the Unisa South African Music Scholarship Competition. Later that month she won the Pick 'n Pay/FMR music travel award, which enabled her to audition at, among other music institutions, the Juilliard School of Music. She regularly performs in recitals all over the country - often with her brothers, Benjamin and Ammiel.

Ammiel Bushakevitz was born in Jerusalem (Israel) in 1986. As recipient of the DAAD International Scholarship for Artists, he is currently studying under Phillip Moll at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Leipzig (Germany). Ammiel has given performances as soloist and chamber musician in centres like London, Vienna, Rome, Berlin, Zurich, Bonn, Turin, Hamburg, Milan and Bayreuth. He has appeared as soloist with every professional orchestra in South Africa, including the Cape Town Philharmonic, Johannesburg Philharmonic, Durban Philharmonic and the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa. In addition to his studies in Leipzig, he also furthered his studies at the Franz Schubert Institute in Baden bei Wien (Austria) and at the European Academy of Music and Arts in Montepulciano (Italy). He holds B.Mus. and M.Mus. degrees in solo piano from the University of Pretoria (where he studied under Prof. Joseph Stanford). In 2008 Ammiel won the Unisa Music Scholarship Competition for Performers. Other competitions he has won, include the Musicon National Piano Competition (1st prize), the Philip Moore National Music Competition (1st prize) and the Lionel Bowman Beethoven Competition (1st prize).

Programme:
Bartók – Sonata No. 2 for violin and piano, Sz.76
Strauss - Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 18
Schubert - Sonata in A major, D.574
Lutoslawski - Partita
Wieniawski - Polonaise Brillante No. 2 in A major, Op. 21

Admission:
R120 (adults), R80 (pensioners, students and learners)
R50 (block booking of 10+)
Tickets available at Computicket.

Enquiries:
Ninette Pretorius (tel. 051 401 2504)
 

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