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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
Symphony Concert

Soloist:            Samson Diamond (violin)

Conductor:        Alexander Fokkens

Date:                Wednesday 6 March 2013

Venue:              Odeion

Time:               19:30

The newly appointed concertmaster of the FSSO and leader of the Odeion String Quartet, Samson Diamond, will be the soloist in the first symphony concert this year in the Odieon. He will play the Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, K218 (Mozart) with the FSSO conducted by Alexander Fokkens. The rest of the programme will consist of the Concerto Grosso Op. 6 No. 12 in b-minor (Handel), Her Absence Filled His World for string orchestra (Mattjis van Dijk) and the Symphony No. 45 (“Farewell”) by Haydn.

Samson got his first taste of music in Soweto where he studied with founder director of Buskaid, Rosemary Nalden and further on with Richard Ireland, Pauline Nobes and Philippe Graffin.

He graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK, where he obtained both Bachelor of Music Honours Degree First Class (2006) and his Master of Music Performance (2007) degree with distinction.

As a freelance orchestral player in the UK, Samson played in the Hallé Orchestra, the Academy of St Martins in the Fields, BBC Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, and the Academy of Ancient Music. He has been heard in concert in prestigious venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie in Berlin, Bela Bartok National Concert Hall in Budapest, and the Musikverein in Vienna, with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner. He has gained experience under distinguished conductors including Sir Mark Elder, Gianandrea Noseda, Yan Pascal Tortellier, and Stanislav Skrowacevski.

After eight years abroad, Samson returned to He was principal second violin of the JPO and he is founder member of the jazz-classical band Quattro Fusion, and former leader of the Diamond Quartet.

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

www.fsso.org.za

 

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