Latest news with #Vexations'
Powys County Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Powys County Times
The story of how a Powys town made global news in 1983
2025 marks the centenary of the death of the eccentric French composer Erik Satie. A variety of events will be taking place across the country to celebrate his music and some will remember his impact on the Powys border town of Presteigne in 1983. Satie's mesmerically strange piano composition called 'Vexations' was played by composer and music teacher Adrian Vernon-Fish with his pupil 16 year old Dawn Pye, in the front parlour of Archie Dobson's house on the High Street in Presteigne. The composition is only 16 bars long but Satie required it to be repeated 840 times, 'tres lentement'- very slowly. Satie had in effect created a Musical Marathon requiring at least 50 repetitions an hour, which would take at least 17 hours to complete. Adrian had suggested this event as he was passionate to undertake this marathon in the hope that it would help to boost the fund-raising efforts of the recently constituted Mid Border Community Arts Association which had been created and run by volunteers who were busy fund-raising for the very first Presteigne Festival to be launched later in September. Adrian knew that he would not be able to fit a piano into the front parlour, so instead he installed his electric organ with an electric keyboard if any back up was needed. The story is taking up by Lynden Rees-Roberts who said: "I suggested maybe people could drop-in and be sponsored to see how long they could sit and listen to it. This was agreed by our MBCAA committee. "I made contact with Phil Rickman, our local Mid Wales correspondent for the Press Association, who at first, was less than enthusiastic, until I revealed that the same short piece was to be repeated very slowly 840 times. 'What's that going to be like?, he asked. ' Probably very boring' I replied. Phil then became animated and said 'Now that's interesting'. "I had no idea that this short conversation was to be so vital for what was to become an utterly bizarre experience for all of us involved in the performance of Satie's Vexations. "To our total surprise, just three days before the performance of Vexations, The Guardian ran a front page article not only discussing Satie's eccentric music but also previewing our musical event in Presteigne. "Within hours we had phone calls from the BBC in Cardiff and Harlech Television HTV who were arranging to send teams to Presteigne. At 7am Adrian started his performance of Vexations on what proved to be the hottest day of the year. Lynden added: "Very few people came in to begin with, but some did stop to see why a school bell was being rung by a man in a top hat and tails, namely my husband Gareth Rees-Roberts who approximately every 12 minutes made the announcement, 'Oh yeah, oh yeah another 10 repetitions. "As the day got hotter and hotter, more press arrived from Radio Hereford and Worcester plus camera crews from HTV and Cardiff, as well as reporters from the Telegraph, Daily Express, The Daily Mail, the Mirror, Birmingham Post, Shropshire Star and Hereford Times. "They all based themselves across the road, in Tony's Fish and Chip Bar, which happened to have a telephone on the wall from which they dictated copy for the next day's newspapers." After five hours Dawn had to take over on the back-up keyboard because the organ had started to overheat. It was so hot that Adrian's fingers were sticking to the keys. Local artist Isylwyn Watkins listened for more than four hours, collecting sponsorship for more than 200 repetitions. He declared it was very relaxing. Lynden said: "Then in the early evening someone popped by and said that our event was on the National News at Six. Suddenly the small parlour room was inundated with townsfolk curious to see what was happening and a crowd soon gathered in the street outside. At around midnight an exhausted but relieved Adrian and Dawn stood up and were greeted with applause and overwhelming admiration by those who had stayed to the end. Local policeman Charlie Edwards arrived with a bottle of champagne which was shared around the room and announced that Adrian and Dawn had performed a 17 hour Mantra which had lifted a cloud from the town. By now the world press was chasing the story and the following day organisers were contacted by South African morning television followed by another one from the Sidney Telegraph. Reports of the event were published as far afield as the New York Times, The Jamaica Daily Gleaner, the Athens News, The Boston Globe and Le Monde. Lynden said: "This completely unexpected level of publicity created a massive boost to the credibility and future success of the MBCAA and its plans for the first Presteigne Festival in September. "In effect Presteigne went viral in a pre-internet age.
South China Morning Post
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Marina Abramovic directs pianist Igor Levit in 16-hour marathon Erik Satie performance
Classical pianist Igor Levit takes to a London stage this week for an epic musical endurance test directed by performance artist Marina Abramovic. Advertisement Levit is aiming to be the first person 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 will witness 'silence, endurance, immobility and contemplation, where time ceases to exist', according to Abramovic on the venue's website. Written by Erik Satie in 1893, Vexations' is described as 'one of classical music's most simple, yet arduous and demanding works'. Pianist Igor Levit. He has live-streamed a solo performance of Eirk Satie's Vexations but will be the first person to do so on a concert stage when he plays it in London this week. Photo: Felix Broede for Sony Classical 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. Advertisement During the Covid-19 pandemic, Levit live-streamed a Vexations performance from a Berlin studio.
Euronews
29-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
840 encores: Igor Levit and Marina Abramović plan a mammoth 20 hour Erik Satie performance
From one page of sheet music, Russian-German pianist Igor Levit will create a near day-long event. In his upcoming performance of Erik Satie's piece 'Vexations' at London's Southbank Centre, Levit will once again recreate the work exactly per its instructions, repeating it 840 times. Not published in his lifetime, 'Vexations' is a short piece that Satie wrote around 1893 without a time signature, dynamic markings, or even clear indication of how to include a bass-line added at the bottom. But all these curiosities about the one-page piece pale in comparison to the impressionist composer's instruction before the music: '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.' Many believe Satie's intention was for the piece to be played 840 times. Across 24 and 25 April at London's Southbank Centre, Levit will perform 'Vexations'. It's expected that his performance could last anything between 16 and 20 hours. Past performances It's not the first time 'Vexations' will have been performed in full. Levit himself performed it over livestream during the pandemic. In 2020, Levit gave a number of livestreamed piano performances through a series of 52 concerts. His performance of 'Vexations' was aimed to represent the 'silent scream' of musicians around the world. In 1963, John Cage organised the first performance of 'Vexations'. Cage, the American modernist composer, had discovered the piece in 1949, nearly a quarter century after Satie's death. For the performance in New York, Cage organised a relay team of pianists to swap in and out to achieve the 840 repetitions. Since then, other pianists have performed it. American pianist Aaron D. Smith played it non-stop in the longest solo piano version, lasting 36 hours and 22 minutes in 2021. Last year, Japanese artist Ai Onoda tried to match the feat at the Yamagoya gallery and shop in Tokyo wearing a diaper. For his live solo performance, Levit is accompanied by arguably the leading figure in extreme performance art, Serbian artist Marina Abramović. Abramović will direct the show. As Levit braves the endurance task, the platform around him will be deconstructed, allowing the audience to slowly get closer to the 37-year-old pianist. Levit will be able to drink, eat and 'discretely' relieve himself throughout the mammoth performance. Staying the course It's also not the first time Abramović and Levit have worked together. They previously created a performance of Bach's 'Goldberg Variations' where the audience were told to prepare for the music by sitting in silence with their phones locked away for half an hour. Abramović has said that the pair 'are both ready to step into this unknown territory, leave our old ways of doing things, and emerge with a completely new experience.' Satie is one of the most influential composers of the 20th century for the way he is championed as a leading voice in the transition to modernism. His often sparse compositions, filled with unresolved chords were massively influential on impressionist composers like Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Francis Poulence. He is best known for his simple but elegant pieces, his 'Gymnopédies' and 'Gnossiennes', written in his early 20s. Shortly after writing 'Vexations' he became a recluse in his Paris apartment, allowing no visitors for the rest of his life, moving through different artistic traditions.
