Years
2019 2018
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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Master Class and Individual Lessons - Prof. Niel Immelman

Master Class and Individual Lessons
Prof. Niel Immelman


The UFS Department of Music is hosting a piano master class by Prof. Niel Immelman of the Royal College of Music (London). The class takes place on Monday, 30 August, on the stage of the Odeion Auditorium from 14:00 - 17:00.

Two additional teaching sessions will be held at the Department in Room 10:
Wednesday, 1 September, 14:00 - 17:00
Thursday, 2 September, 14:00 - 17:00


Those who wish to participate in teaching sessions on Wednesday and Thursday must submit copies of their pieces by Monday 17:00, from which Prof. Immelman will make selections.

Participants at the master class on Monday, are:
Mauritz Heine
William Earl
Richard Rheeder
Caryn Reed
Stephanie Janecke

Admission to the master class and lessons are free.
For enquiries, contact Ninette Pretorius (051 – 401 2504) or Dana Cilliers (051 – 401 3239)


Niel Immelman FRCM

South African-born Niel Immelman studied with Cyril Smith, Ilona Kabos and Maria Curcio. He was still a student at the Royal College of Music when Bernard Haitink invited him to play Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Rhapsody with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. His highly successful début was followed by further appearances with the London Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic and other leading orchestras at the Royal Festival Hall, the Albert Hall and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and it marked a concert career that has taken Niel to every continent. His commercial recordings for the Etcetera and Meridian labels have received outstanding critical acclaim and he is the first pianist in history to have recorded the complete piano works of Josef Suk.

His teaching career is equally distinguished. He is Professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music in London, has given master classes at many of the world’s leading conservatoires, including the Chopin Academy (Warsaw), the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, the Moscow Conservatoire, the Royal College of Music (Oslo), the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki), the Toronto Royal Conservatory, the Universities of Berlin and Vienna and the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne. He regularly serves on juries of international competitions.
 

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