A re-imagined performance of Sonata Quasi Una Fantasia by Nam June Paik that was first performed in 1962. The piece involves performing the first movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata whilst undressing. In order to prepare for a re-performance of Paik’s piece I looped through the music at The Guesthouse in Cork for a duration of six hours whilst undressing and redressing. This rehearsal performance was documented by photographer Harry Moore using a pinhole camera (see images below).
The performance at London Contemporary Music Festival was described by Robert Barry in Tempo: “The black suit, shiny shoes and silver tie stood out among the heatwave shorts and general dress-down-Friday vibe of most London Contemporary Music Festival performers. Pianist Andy Ingamells played through the first page or so of the Moonlight Sonata just fine. Then he started to remove his left shoe. With his right hand still arpeggiating, his left fumbles with the laces. There’s a few fudged notes when he pushes the heel off but he carries on gamely. It’s the buttons on his claret-coloured shirt – especially the cuffs – that cause the real problems, playing fingers now stumbling and flailing all over the place. Belt and tie get whipped off with a smooth flourish. Then a page of score is plucked from the stand with a similar gesture. As it flutters to the ground besides the mounting heap of clothes, I’m momentarily embarrassed at the thought of the piano itself being denuded as well. But the big laugh comes when Ingamells pauses before the final chord, now fully bare-arse naked, to remove his glasses, placing them carefully on the lid of the instrument before completing the cadence. When Nam June Paik originally performed his version of Beethoven’s Sonata Quasi Una Fantasia at Düsseldorf’s Neo-Dada In Der Musik festival in 1962, he managed to keep his briefs on (though he did cut several holes in them and smear himself in tomato paste). But Ingamells here goes the full monty with stoic indomitability, as if locked into some peculiar personal ceremony.”
“Very British in its repressed melancholy”
Ben Harper, Boring like a drill
Performances
June 9 2022, The Guesthouse, Cork
June 16 2022, London Contemporary Music Festival
July 30 2022, Unit 44, Dublin
Andy Ingamells 