Erik Satie’s centenary inspired an immersive performance of Vexations, with nearly one hundred pianists rotating for a full day of continuous music at the CETC.
This Friday, 14 November at 20:30, the Centro de Experimentación del Teatro Colón (CETC) launched a rare large-scale experiment: a 24-hour performance of Erik Satie’s Vexations, presented with free, continuous admission. The public was able to enter and leave at any moment, creating a fluid environment in which listening became a voluntary, time-based experience. The performance concluded on Saturday at 20:30.
Throughout the event, long lines formed outside the CETC, as audiences waited for their turn to enter and experience the marathon from within.
The marathon brought together around ninety pianists, ranging from established artists to composers, students, teachers and performers from outside the classical circuit. Taking turns at the keyboard, they maintained an uninterrupted realisation of Satie’s score, accompanied by a series of video projections conceived for the occasion.
A cryptic miniature with an outsized legacy
Composed in the early 1890s, Vexations consists of a brief melodic idea framed by two alternative harmonisations. At normal tempo, it lasts well under two minutes. Its significance lies in a handwritten note added by Satie:
“To play this piece 840 times in succession, it will be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, in the deepest silence, by means of serious immobilities.”
Whether this was a literal instruction or a provocation remains debated, but the inscription transformed the fragment into one of the most extreme proposals in the piano repertoire. For decades the work was hardly known, surviving mostly as a curiosity in Satie’s manuscripts.
Its modern performance history began in 1963, when John Cage organised the first complete public realisation at the University of New York, using a relay of pianists to sustain the 840 repetitions. The event lasted more than 18 hours.
In recent decades, Vexations has continued to attract performers willing to test the limits of concentration and physical endurance. Among the most notable solo ventures was Igor Levit’s 2020 performance in Berlin, in which the pianist undertook the full sequence alone in a streamed session that lasted over 15 hours. His realisation placed the piece back in the international spotlight and highlighted its relevance as both a musical and psychological experiment.
A collective gesture in Buenos Aires
The CETC’s version emphasised the communal nature of the work. The roster included classical pianists, improvisers, contemporary creators and emerging performers, sharing the keyboard in shifts that flattened hierarchies and highlighted the piece’s experimental spirit. For listeners, the experience became one of extended attention, shaped by the passing of time, the slow transformation of sound, and the freedom to come and go.
With this marathon of Vexations, Teatro Colón joined global commemorations marking 100 years since Satie’s death, offering Buenos Aires a chance to encounter a work that continues to challenge assumptions about duration, structure and the act of listening itself.
Subscribe to our newsletter