Particolare Dubai
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Musical performance for 50 pianos by Klangforum Wien, Presenting Georg Friedrich Haasʼs 11,000 Strings.

With 11,000 Strings for 50 Microtonally Attuned Pianos and Chamber Orchestra, Georg Friedrich Haas explores a microtonal space for 50 pianists on as many upright pianos and an ensemble. Peter Paul Kainrath, director of Klangforum Wien, on the inception of the idea for this composition: “In 2018, I had the opportunity to visit the Hailun piano factory in Ningbo, China. Before each instrument leaves the factory, it is played continuously by automated machines for over 24 hours. I saw this on location – 100 pianos being played simultaneously. I immediately thought that for a composer like Georg Friedrich Haas, this kind of setup would be highly compelling, as he is one of the most enthusiastic proponents of “unleashing” traditional tonality through microtonality.”

Georg Friedrich Haas, whom many consider the most eminent Austrian composer of our time, accepted the challenge: “It is one of these ideas that are so crazy that there is no other possibility but to say ‘Yes!'” The result is a unique concert installation. With 11,000 Strings, the composer leads us into a microtonal nirvana. The world premiere in Bolzano (1 August 2023) was performed by pianists from numerous conservatories and universities, together with the Mahler Academy Orchestra. The first follow-up performance with the original version of the composition was part of the 2023 edition of Wien Modern festival: The ensemble of Klangforum Wien, together with 50 pianists from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (MDW), performed the thrilling piece for the first time in the Great Hall of the Wiener Konzerthaus (1 November 2023). Subsequent tour stops of 11,000 Strings: Prague Spring Festival (2 June 2024), Holland Festival in Amsterdam (22 June 2024), Düsseldorf Festival (15 September 2024), KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen (22 May 2025), Park Avenue Armory New York (20 Sept. – 6 Oct. 2025) and Zhejiang Conservatory of Music in Hangzhou (30 Oct. 2025).

Focusing on the city’s artificial environment, the exhibition explores unrealized plans for utopian cities. As a visionary yet imperfect setting, Dubai functions as a site of underlying tension between dreams of idyllic dwellings and their inherent unachievability. The metropolis rises over an endless desert, stretching the architecture of ideal futures to its limit. Its successes come through symbolic appropriations of nature, transforming the desert lily into the towering Burj Khalifa and palm leaves into the Jumeirah islands.

By sublimating organic design into waves and branches of glass and steel, the city stands with eerie familiarity–an earthly base accommodating artificial superstructure. New projects are constantly proposed, and developers clamor to add to the growing metropolis. As architects and designers add to the heavenly gardens of the city, they are greeted by the sprawling desert, stunned into inaction by the vastness of the canvas available for their work.