Few people can be surprised by a simple concert program now. This is probably why talented people try to go for a record and give, for example, the longest concert in the history of the music industry.
Forward to the Guinness Book of Records
Canadian musician Jason Beck, better known as Gonzalez, is famous for being in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest concert in the world.
In May 2009, at the Cine 13 theater in Paris, the musician sat down at the piano at midnight on Sunday, and finished only at three in the morning on Monday. Thus, the duration of the concert was 27 hours 3 minutes and 44 seconds. The previous record was 26 hours 12 minutes - this is how much the Indian Parsann Goody played.
According to the rules of the Guinness Book of Records, the performer had to play the pieces, taking a break between each of no more than thirty seconds. Every three hours the Canadian was given a fifteen minute pause. This amazing man managed not only to take a break, but also to change his stage costume several times, and once he was even able to shave.
Gonzalez entertained the audience with both classics (Beethoven's "Ode to Joy") and contemporary hits (Britney Spears' Hit me baby one more time). In total, Jason Beck has played more than three hundred works. None of them were repeated.
Correctly believing that the audience would not stand such a long performance entirely, the concert organizers found a way out. They divided the musician's performance into several parts, lasting 2 or 3 hours. A separate ticket could be purchased for any of them. Ardent fans of Gonzalez for 105 euros could enjoy the concert to the fullest.
Concert hundreds of years long
But the American composer John Cage in 1985 decided to aim for several centuries and wrote the composition "Slowly, as far as possible." In the original, its duration is only twenty minutes. But it will be 639 years old.
The composition began playing on the eighty-ninth birthday of John Cage, September 5, 2001. And exactly 639 years earlier, in 1361, the first organ was created in Halberstadt. Hence the impressive length of the concert.
In order to realize the idea, it was required to design a special organ. And now this incredible concert takes place in the church of the German town of Halberstadt for days. Although in the monotonous noise it is hardly possible to discern that this is a musical composition.
The chord change happens every couple of years. And tourists and music lovers flock to Halberstadt to hear how it happens. When the work ends, most likely, another achievement will appear in the Guinness Book of Records.
