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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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Emperor

Emperor
Free State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Germán Gutiérrez
Soloist: Jan Hugo (piano)
Thursday 2 August 2012
Odeion
19:30

Programme:
HAYDN: Symphony No. 88
GINASTERA: Variaciones Concertantes
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emepror”)


An international renowned conductor, a brilliant young pianist and a piano concerto that is regarded by many as the king of concertos are the elements that make the next FSSO concert an event not to be missed.

The Columbian-born conductor Germán Gutiérrez, who is visiting South Africa for the first time, will be on the podium. He has served as Director of Orchestras and Associate Professor of Orchestral Studies at Fort Worth’s Texas Christian University (TCU) as well as Director of TCU’s Latin American Music Center and biennial Latin American Music Festival since 1996. Maestro Gutiérrez is a frequent guest conductor of professional orchestras in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania.
In 2006, he was invited to conduct the Czech National Symphony in historic Smetana Hall as part of the 110th anniversary of Carl Orff’s birth, where he led the orchestra in a performance of Carmina Burana. Maestro Gutiérrez has also appeared with the Fort Worth Symphony, Auckland Philharmonic (New Zealand), Bogotá Philharmonic, Puerto Rico National Symphony, Sinfónica del Teatro Municipal de Rio de Janeiro, and Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestra (Brazil), among others. He also makes regular appearances with orchestras in his native Colombia.

Born in Bloemfontein, Jan started his music tuition at the age of 7 with Claudine van Breda in Pretoria. At the age of 11 he participated in the International Competition for Pianists in the Czech Republic and at 12 years he won the Musicon Senior Primary Piano Competition in Bloemfontein and the Sanlam Music Competition in Cape Town. Just 13 years old, Jan was invited to further his studies in Italy and became a student of Francesco Cipolletta at the Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali "Vecchi-Tonelli" in Modena, Italy.

He has played recitals in Rome, Milan, Bologna, Modena and various other towns in Italy, in important concert-seasons of Italian music associations. Jan has also performed as soloist with the Kwa-Zulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra. He performed as soloist with the Orchestra of the Istituto “Vecchi-Tonelli” in the Teatro Comunale of Modena and he is also active in chamber music. In 2011 he was the winner of the Unisa National Piano Competition in Pretoria.

The concert will start with one of Haydn’s most beautiful symphonies – the Symphony No. 88. This will be followed by Ginastera’s Variaciones Concertantes - a work that is seldom performed (possibly because of the difficulty of the piece). It is however, a beautiful work with folkloric and traditional materials in which all the principal players have important solos. The evening will end with Beethoven’s majestic Emperor Concerto which is regarded by many pianists as the king of concertos.

Admission
R120 (adults)
R80 (pensioners)
R50 (students / scholars / groups of 10 and more)

Tickets are available from Computicket (Shoprite / Checkers, Mimosa Mall)
Book online at www.computicket.com  

Enquiries:
Ella Kotze (FSSO), tel. (051) 401-2342 (08:00 – 13:00)
www.fsso.org.za
 

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