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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
Maarten Koningsberger (baritone) & Albie van Schalkwyk (piano)

In Winterreise (Winter Journey) - Song cycle by Franz Schubert

Thursday 21 August 2014

Odeion

19:30

 

Maarten has established a successful European career in opera and song recitals in a wide repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Maderna.  He studied music in Amsterdam.  His teachers have been Max von Egmond, Udo Reinemann and Margreet Honig.  After graduation, he joined the School of Lyric Art of the Opéra de Paris.  This gave him the opportunity to sing in several opera productions in France and Italy.  His recital repertoire is similarly broad and includes mastery of standard and period performance styles.  As a solo recitalist, he is often accompanied by major artists such as Irwin Gage and Graham Johnson and has recorded CD programs of songs by Schubert, Schumann and Milhaud and solo cantatas by Campra and Blankenburg.

 

Critics assess his voice as well suited to the intimacy of the song form with a compelling quality even in quiet passages.  His voice is characterized as lyrical, warm and deep, yet with the authentic baritone rather than bass quality.  Koningsberger has broadcast on several European radio companies and teaches at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and the Baroque Music Center in Versailles (France).  He records for the Hyperion label and has participated in the company's epochal traversal of the entire song literature of Franz Schubert.

 

Albie van Schalkwyk has established himself as performer in a number of fields over the past 30 years.  One of the leading chamber musicians and vocal accompanists in South Africa, he has also performed as soloist with SA orchestras, performed solo recitals, given masterclasses for singers and accompanists, worked as a music producer for the SABC and arranged music for various combinations.

 

After completing his BMus degree at the University of Cape Town with Lamar Crowson, he studied in London under Geoffrey Parsons, Gwenneth Pryor and Martino Tirimo. During this period he won the UNISA Overseas Scholarship as well as first prize in the SABC Music Prize Piano Competition.  Back in SA he took up a position as official accompanist and producer at the SABC. He has been a member of several well-known SA ensembles.  His partnership with Austrian cellist Heidi Litschauer has produced two major tours through South Africa and annual visits to Austria.  He has also performed all over South Africa with visiting international artists such as Elly Ameling (soprano), Maarten Koningsberger (baritone), Peter-Lukas Graf (flute), Emma Johnson (clarinet), Christian Altenburger (violin) and Raphael Wallfisch (cello).  His interest in vocal music and the art song in particular has led to many fulfilling concert partnerships with singers, culminating in the formation in 1994 of The Songmakers' Guild.

 

Programme: Franz Schubert – Winterreise (Winter Journey)

 

Admission:

R100 (adults)

R80 (pensioners)

R60 (UFS staff)

R40 (students and learners)

R40 (group bookings of 10+)

Tickets available at Computicket.

 

Enquiries:       

Ninette Pretorius (tel. 051 – 401 2504)

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