11.000 Saiten

For the first time at the festival, we welcome Klangforum Wien, one of the top ensembles of contemporary music. The famous Viennese musicians play with a confident lightness, beautiful sound and lust. The most important contemporary composers dedicate their boldest works to Klangforum Wien, including Georg Friedrich Haas, whose sensual and powerful compositions have earned him the title “Bruckner of the 21st century”. The sensation at the last “Wien Modern” festival was the production “11,000 Strings”, which Haas composed for the ensemble and a monumental concert installation of 50 microtonally tuned pianos. The audience experiences never-before-heard sounds at the centre of the pianos arranged in a circle, creating a powerful maelstrom that Viennese listeners have compared to a storm from the depths of the universe or the launch of a massive spaceship.

Musical direction: Tim Anderson

Commissioned by the Busoni-Mahler Foundation
sponsored by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation
Exclusive project partner: Hailun Piano Co., Ltd.