Een flat met duizend ramen is a six-part miniseries in which you step into the world of six fictional apartment residents who share a—often coincidental—connection with the music of Haydn. Six composers transformed Haydn’s Sun Quartets (opus 20) into performances of forty minutes each, in which Haydn’s work, dating back two and a half centuries, and contemporary music meet. Each episode focuses on one of the main characters, and a single composer writes the music.

Een flat met duizend ramen is a concept by composer Primo Ish-Hurwitz, commissioned by the Amsterdam String Quartet Biennial. Star actress Ariane Schluter portrays the main characters, the texts were written by Joke van Leeuwen, the music is performed by the Chaos String Quartet, and Jos van Kan directs.

The performances can be seen at various locations in the Netherlands, sometimes as a complete miniseries and sometimes as a selection. On Saturday, October 24, you can attend three parts of this fascinating music theatre series at De Oosterpoort.

Program

Part 2: 1st Floor, 1E
A young resident moves into her new apartment. A closet door turns out to still be locked, and a voice can be heard from behind the door. Richard Ayres’ music is light and playful and, as the piece progresses, begins to resemble Haydn more and more.

Part 3: 8th Floor, 8F
An eccentric widow has just lost her wife. The audience witnesses the conversation with the funeral director at her home. Composer Frieda Gustavs moves in the twilight zone between classical and pop and incorporated, among other things, the Haydn CD recordings of the Chaos String Quartet into her electronic music.

Part 4: 14th Floor, 14D
A woman is hanging upside down in the car after a traffic accident. But the classical radio plays cheerfully on, as if nothing happened. In the hospital, Haydn’s music keeps repeating endlessly in her head. Primo Ish-Hurwitz’s composition incorporates all kinds of distortions of Haydn, sometimes dreamy and sometimes rousing, but also leaves plenty of room for the original, theatrical music.