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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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Stefans Grové 90 years - A Festival & Symposium

10 - 12 August 2012
Odeion School of Music

Internationally acclaimed South African composer, Stefans Grové, celebrates his 90th birthday this year. In honour of his long and distinguished career, the Odeion School of Music (University of the Free State), in collaboration with the Documentation Centre for Music (DOMUS) at the University of Stellenbosch, is proud to present a weekend-long festival in Bloemfontein from 10 to 12 August, which will include concerts of his music, a symposium of musicological reflection, as well as commentaries on his work by the composer himself.

The programme starts off on Friday 10 August with a talk given by Prof Grové (18:00) to introduce the evening’s concert. The concert at 19:30 will include Grové’s “Tweespalt” and “Sanguinies” from Piano Pieces (1975) Nonyana, the ceremonial dancer (1994), Afrika Beelde (1999) and Dance Song for the Nyau Dance (2003). Pianist Ben Schoeman is the soloist for this part of the programme. After the interval the set of Five Ingrid Jonker songs, Pan and the Nightingale and Sielvoël will be performed. The artists are Helen Vosloo (flute), Anmari van der Westhuizen (cello), Lesley-Ann Mathews (piano) and Matildie Thom Wium (mezzo soprano).

On Saturday 11 August the Documentation Centre for Music will present a symposium (9:00 – 13:00) on Grové’s music, including papers by such distinguished scholars as Gregory Barz (via video), Hannes Taljaard and Izak Grové, and a lecture demonstration by Ben Schoeman.
With the concert (19:30) Grové’s Afrika Hymnus II, the première of My Jaargetye (commissioned by the Odeion School of Music for Schoeman), Conversations for organ and piano as well as the première of Grové’s recently composed Piano Quintet – “A Venda Legend”. During this concert the FAK will present an award for exceptional cultural achievement to Stefans Grové and the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns will present a citation to the composer. This concert will be preceded by an interview with Grové conducted by Ben Schoeman on the subject of Grové’s piano music (18:00).

The concluding concert of the festival will take place on Sunday 12 August and will feature the ensemble work Musa, for flute (Helen Vosloo), viola (Jeanne-Louise Moolman), violoncello (Anmari van der Westhuizen), piano (Piet Moolman) and a narrator (Marli van der Bijl). Other works on Sunday afternoon’s programme include Grové’s Sonata for Viola and Piano and the Elegy for String Orchestra which will be performed by the OSM Camerata.

We sincerely thank the following OSM partners who have contributed to make these special events possible: DOMUS, Die Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns, the FAK, ATKV & ATKV-Muziq and Xerox (UFS Campus).

ADMISSION:
R70 (adults), R50 (pensioners, students and learners)
Special Package: R120 for the three concerts (i.e. R40 per concert!)
Tickets available at Computicket

Admission to the seminar and pre-concert talks are free of charge.

ENQUIRIES:
Ninette Pretorius (tel. 051 401 2504)
 

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