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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
OSM Dean’s Concert

Wednesday, 18 September 2013
Odeion
19:30

The OSM annually hosts a special Dean’s Concert where top students of the OSM perform.

The first half of the programme will include performances by OSM students, the Odeion String Quartet together with the Junior Odeion String Quartet as well as the Odeion Choir.  The second half of the programme will consist of the OSM Camerata performing under the baton of conductor Jan Moritz Onken.  Jan Moritz Onken, has been appointed as chief conductor of the OSMC for the second season of 2013 and will  prepare the OSMC for their participation at the 13th International Conservatory Festival in St Petersburg in November this year.

ADMISSION:

R110 (adults)

R70 (pensioners)

R40 (students and learners

 R40 (group booking of 10+)

Tickets available at Computicket. 

All concert proceeds go towards the St Petersburg fund for the OSM Camerata’s visit to Russia.

ENQUIRIES:    

Ninette Pretorius (tel. 051 401 2504)

13th International Conservatory Festival

After  a  successful  audition  the  OSMC  received an  invitation  to  participate  in  the  13th International Conservatory Festival which  will  take place in St Petersburg Russia from the 1st to the 9th of November 2013. The festival is a yearly highlight on the concert calendar of the prestigious Rimsky Korsakov Conservatoire.  It is the first time in history that an orchestra from Africa is invited to partake in this festival.            

The artistic panel of the festival under the auspices of Prof Lydia Volchek annually selects ten  conservatories  internationally  (in  the  likes of the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire (Moscow), Conservatoire de Paris, Eastman School of Music NY and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki Finland  to  name  but  a  few)  to  gather  in  St  Petersburg  for  the  festival.  The rector of the Rimsky Korsakov Conservatoire, Prof Mikhail Gantvarg stated that it will be the first school of music hailing from Africa to participate in the festival ever.  The OSMC was requested to give two recitals of 40 minutes each during the festival. Maestro Jan Moritz Onken will lead the ensemble to St Petersburg; OSMC members will have the opportunity to attend all concerts presented by fellow participants and master classes presented by the masters of St Petersburg Conservatoire.

The festival is usually opened and closed with a grand concert presented by the St. Petersburg Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra (70 plus members). Last year the opening concert was conducted by the celebrated master, Valery Gergiev (artistic director of the Mariinsky Opera and Symphony Orchestra) while the closing ceremony was conducted by Semyon Bychkov. Both Gergiev and Bychkov are alumni of the St Petersburg Conservatoire.

The OSMC will recite a programme of mainly South African composers, with two new works commissioned by the OSM New Music Initiative from the prolific South African composer, Hendrik Hofmeyr, entitled Notturno Elegiaco and Phantom Waltz.  Phantom Waltz is a challenging work where musicians simultaneously play, sing and speak. A reworked edition for chamber orchestra of the original string quartet for piano and soprano, Lieder op Boesmanverse, by revered South African composer, Stefans Grové will also be performed. To commemorate the centenary of composer Benjamin Britten this year, Cantus in Memoriam of Benjamin Britten by Arvo Pärt is also included in the programme.

Economic and Management Sciences

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Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

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