Pianist Igor Levit performs Erik Satie’s challenging Vexations, lasting upwards of 16 hours

Pianist Igor Levit performs Erik Satie’s challenging Vexations, lasting upwards of 16 hours, in a unique event directed by conceptual artist Marina Abramović.

At this, Levit’s first ever live performance of the work, you can bear witness to part or all of this feat of endurance.

Vexations is one of classical music’s most simple, yet arduous and demanding, works. The one-page score includes an instruction to repeat it 840 times, which translates to between 16 and 20 hours of continuous playing.

In May 2020, the pianist performed Vexations over live stream to highlight the challenges facing artists during the first Covid lockdown.

Levit told The Guardian: ‘The sheer duration of over 20 hours of Vexations doesn’t feel like a nuisance or torture to me as the title would suggest, but rather a retreat of silence and humility, reflecting a feeling of resistance.’

Often considered impossible to play in full, Vexations has inspired musicians from the late 20th century onwards, including John Cage who rediscovered the score in the 1960s.

Satie wrote on the score: ‘In order to play the motif 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, and in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities.’

Abramović is the world’s most famous performance artist. Throughout her practice, Abramović has blurred the lines between the observer and the observed as they pertain to performance.