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Marina Abramovic directs pianist Igor Levit in 16-hour marathon Erik Satie performance
19th century composer Erik Satie called Vexations ‘simple, yet arduous’. Igor Levit is among the first pianists to perform it solo in public
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Classical pianist Igor Levit took to a London stage on April 24 for an epic musical endurance test directed by performance artist Marina Abramovic.
Levit was among the first people to solo play Vexations, a single sheet of music repeated 840 times, in a public performance expected to last at least 16 hours.
The audience at central London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall would witness “silence, endurance, immobility and contemplation, where time ceases to exist”, according to Abramovic on the venue’s website.
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Written by Erik Satie in 1893, Vexations” is described as “one of classical music’s most simple, yet arduous and demanding works”.
Satie’s manuscript included a composer’s note instructing that it should be repeated 840 times, a feat which generally takes between 16-20 hours of continuous playing.
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