11.000 Saiten – for 50 pianos & orchestra

The opening night of Interfinity 2027 will feature the monumental 11.000 Saiten by Georg Friedrich Haas in its Swiss premiere – a roughly one-hour composition for 50 pianos and chamber orchestra. Each of the 50 pianos is tuned a hundredth of a tone apart and distributed throughout the space, with the audience seated among the instruments. The pianos and orchestra merge into a single, immersive body of sound, creating a three-dimensional microtonal soundscape of extraordinary intensity. The work will be performed by 50 pianists from the Basel Academy of Music together with the world-renowned Klangforum Wien at Messe Basel. Since its world premiere in 2023, 11.000 Saiten has been presented to sold-out audiences in major cities including New York, Amsterdam, Paris, Vienna and Berlin.

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An introduction at 5:30 pm by musicologist Michel Roth and Klangforum director and commissioner Peter Paul Kainrath will open the evening.

 

At 8:00 p.m., between the two performances, there will be a panel with the internationally renowned neurobiologist and TED speaker Prof. Dr. Anil Seth, who will provide insights into current research on swarm communication.

 

Here you will find a teaser for the work 11.000 Saiten .