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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)


Back
Free State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bernhard Gueller

Soloist: Harriet Mackenzie (violin)
Thursday 20 September 2012
Odeion
19:30

Programme:
Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3
Schubert: Symphony No. 7 (“Unfinished”)
Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major, opus 77

The internationally renowned conductor Bernhard Gueller will be back in Bloemfontein during September to conduct the Free State Symphony Orchestra in a concert in the Odeion on Thursday 20 September. Exciting young British violinist Harriet Mackenzie will be the soloist in Brahms’ monumental Violin Concerto in D major. The rest of the programme consists of Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3 and Schubert’s Symphony No. 7 known as the “Unfinished”.

Bernhard Gueller has been music director of Symphony Nova Scotia in Halifax, Canada since 2002. Well known to audiences internationally for the passion, mastery and drama he brings to the concert hall podium, Gueller is also acclaimed for his “profound interpretations”, the “stunning responses he gets from musicians” and the excitement he elicits. He is acclaimed by musicians, critics and audience for his musical purity and continually garners praise for the fresh approach he brings to the podium.

He has also served as music director, principal conductor and principal guest conductor with various orchestras, including the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra. Gueller has collaborated with many leading soloists such as cellists Daniel Mueller-Schott, Maria Kliegel, Claudio Bohorquez and David Geringas; pianists Anton Kuerti, Jon Kimura Parker, Ivo Pogorelich, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Lars Vogt, Peter Donohoe, Philippe Bianconi and Wayne Marshall, violinist James Ehnes, trumpeter Maurice Andre and entertainers Lionel Ritchie and David Foster.

He has made many recordings for national and international broadcast. His CD, Dancing in the Light, of works by contemporary Canadian composer, Christos Hatzis, with Symphony Nova Scotia, was released to critical acclaim. This followed a CD with mezzo soprano Hanneli Rupert and the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra and others with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, German Brass and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra.

Harriet Mackenzie has toured Europe, America, China, South America and Japan as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. Harriet made her highly acclaimed Purcell room debut as part of the Park Lane Young Artists Series. Since then she has given recitals worldwide in prestigious venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw and the Expo Dome in Japan. Harriet regularly performs concertos both in England and abroad. She has broadcast recitals 'live' for BBC Radio 3, Classic FM and for Hungarian National Radio.
A keen chamber music player, her groups include 'Retorica' – a two violin duo with violinist Philippa Mo, the 'Sutherland Duo' with Christina Lawrie (winners of the Enterprise Music Scotland Award 2012). 'In Accord' with accordionist Milos Milivojevic and with Kosmos - an innovative, unique string trio.

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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