Satie Vexations: Igor Levit

[Pulcinella]

Superstar pianist to perform 'unplayable' 22hr piece in world first

https://www.thetimes.com/article/6d0216b3-bba8-475e-8ad1-a83da3244e1a?shareToken=f6bd407eff8ded04c5e616f54ac03467

[kernelbogey]

He also performed this from home in Berlin, live streamed, during Lockdown, from 800 separate copies of the single-page score. These were to be 'sold' for charitable purposes - but I was never able to find out more about that part.

[kernelbogey]

This performance is on 24 April at the South Bank, starting at 1000, according to the Times piece.

[Pulcinella]

This performance is on 24 April at the South Bank, starting at 1000, according to the Times piece.

Thanks! Might have helped if I'd mentioned that in the OP!

[bluestateprommer]

The event is at the QEH, a collaboration with Marina Abramović:

https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/vexations/

[Serial_Apologist]

The first totally atonal composed piece of published music? It never resolves, does it?

[Roger Webb]

Last done complete at the Guggenheim in 2017...here is a taste of that performance.

https://youtu.be/cj-HVxraqFo

[Mandryka]

I once heard some of it in a complete performance in The Barbican's conservatory -- total waste of time.

[bluestateprommer]

He also performed this from home in Berlin, live streamed, during Lockdown, from 800 separate copies of the single-page score. These were to be 'sold' for charitable purposes - but I was never able to find out more about that part.

The lower part of this page addresses your concern about 'that part', under "Where do the proceeds go?":

https://vexations840.org/en/about/

[kernelbogey]

Thanks BSP.

[kernelbogey]

A memorable (for me) performance was an all-nighter during the TTN hours, with a relay of pianists in various locations. The last tranche was from (IIRC) a chapel in Gloucestershire and we heard the dawn chorus outside. This was somewhere between 1993 and 2007, so probably 2000ish.

[mopsus]

It was 27-28 May 2000 and the final 6 hours came from the Salem Chapel in Hay-on-Wye. (info from the Radio 3 Genome)

[gurnemanz]

Prompted to listen to a CD of Aldo Ciccolini playing Satie with the Vexations track on repeat to get an approximation of what the composer intended. I won't make it to 840 - I'm out this afternoon.

I was taken back to my year doing a Mod Lang PGCE at York University in 1971-72. A good year to choose because the Music Dept under the legendary Wilf Mellers had various interesting events which some of us attended, including the Prof's own series of lectures on The Beatles and an evening with John Cage where the composer chatted, read from his diary and told jokes. He finished off with a half hour long performance of his solo piano work "Cheap Imitation", which he introduced as a kind of homage to Erik Satie, even the title being an imitation of Satie's titles.