The Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Presents A Reimagining Of Szymanowski's Ballet A BODY FOR HARNASIE

The Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra has announced a major creative project which sees them collaborate with choreographer Wayne McGregor CBE and visual artist Ben Cullen Williams to create a reimagined concert production of Szymanowski's ballet score Harnasie called A Body for Harnasie, a co-commission with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

The project will see McGregor use digitally enhanced choreographic storytelling with technological interventions and visuals by Williams. Through the use of human and digital intelligence, a sculptural video installation will be suspended above the orchestra on the stage, reimagining how dance can be created and experienced.

NOSPR will perform the world premiere in Katowice on 26 February with LPO Principal Conductor Edward Gardner, before Gardner takes the production to London to perform it with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Southbank Centre [6 March] and Concertgebouw Brugges [9 March].

Wayne McGregor CBE said: “A Body For Harnasie attempts to re-frame Szymanowski's epic musical work for our times, to create a choreographic object that redefines dance in the concert hall with a physical kinetic sculpture in constant transformation through motion and artificial intelligence. Through this project, the traditional conventions of what is dance and what is space collapses as a new continuum of time emerges. What is ‘real' and what is ‘fake' blurs. Dance, landscape, and AI blend seamlessly. We hope Szymanowski would have been thrilled and somewhat surprised!”

Ewa Bogusz-Moore, General and Programme Director of NOSPR, said: “AI has the potential to unlock extraordinary new ways to enhance the concert experience for audiences. At NOSPR our commitment to creative innovation has led us to embrace the potential of cutting-edge technology and bring it together with the very best artistic vision. With this project, we hope to create a mesmerising visual and artistic experience that brings a fresh reading of Szymanowski's ballet to an orchestral setting. I am delighted that Wayne McGregor and Edward Gardner accepted the invitation to collaborate with NOSPR and hope together we will create an original and enriched musical event.”

Edward Gardner, Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, said: “I can't think of a more thrilling collaboration than the LPO and Wayne McGregor to present Szymanowski's vivid score in a completely new way. Wayne's desire to push boundaries and use of technology in his work is the perfect partner to the LPO's reputation for constantly rising to new heights and taking on innovative projects. The sculptural video installation brings out the expressiveness of the music and will immerse the audience in the story in a very 21st-Century way, by its use of human and digital intelligence. This performance sits within our The Music in You festival which celebrates creativity and this surely will be a display of creativity at the very highest level.”

Wayne McGregor has integrated technological interventions into his work for over 25 years, producing projects including his Living Archive with Google Arts and Culture which has gone on to radically redefine modern dance.

To create A Body for Harnasie, McGregor experimented with the fundamentals of dance, combining live dance with new photographic and film material of the Tatra mountains – where Szymanowski's Harnasie is set – alongside an emergent AI trained on hours of mountain footage which is accompanied by scans of the mountains that are mixed with motion data from the dances. The work has originated from an analogue live dance, featuring a trio for two males and a female referencing the original protagonists from Szymanowski's work. The end result will be a fusion of creative action created through artificial and human intelligence, blurring the boundaries of what is reality and what is artificial.   

Szymanowski's Harnasie is a folk story set in the Tatra mountains with three main (unnamed) characters – a girl, a shepherd and a robber (harnás) – and the score features elements borrowed and inspired by highland music from Podhale folklore. The work was premiered in Prague in 1935 ahead of a production at the Grand Opéra in Paris a year later, and the Polish premiere took place in 1938, a year after Szymanowski's death.

A Body for Harnasie is a co-production of NOSPR The Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice (initiator) and the London Philharmonic Orchestra (with support from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute), conceived and produced by Studio Wayne McGregor, co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. Project partner: Concertgebouw Brugge.

The Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra

The Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra based in Katowice is one of the most important Polish symphony orchestras, as well as a versatile cultural institution. The orchestra's history dates back to 1935 and is inextricably linked with Grzegorz Fitelberg, who was entrusted with the task of creating Poland's first independent radio symphony orchestra. The ensemble made its debut on 2 October 1935 and has been a constant presence on Polish Radio ever since. After the Second World War, the orchestra was reactivated in Katowice, and its reconstruction was entrusted to Witold Rowicki.

Over the following decades, the orchestra gradually strengthened its international reputation, performing in the world's most important concert halls and collaborating with the greatest artists of our time, including Leonard Bernstein, Martha Argerich, Plácido Domingo and Arthur Rubinstein. The orchestra has premiered works by Witold Lutosławski, Wojciech Kilar, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki and Krzysztof Penderecki, among others, and NOSPR albums have been released by prestigious labels. Over the years, the orchestra has been led by distinguished conductors including Jan Krenz, Kazimierz Kord, Tadeusz Strugała, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Antoni Wit, Gabriel Chmura, Jacek Kaspszyk, Alexander Liebreich and Lawrence Foster.

Today, the orchestra's rich musical traditions are cultivated under the artistic direction of Marin Alsop, with Ewa Bogusz-Moore serving as its General and Programme Director.

A permanent element of the NOSPR's identity, at each stage in its history, has remained its relationship with technology. At the end of the 1960s, thanks to its artistic director at the time, Bohdan Wodiczko, the orchestra began an enduring cooperation with television, and nowadays the Internet plays an increasingly important role in building relations with the audience.

The NOSPR's home is a modern building designed by the Konior Studio of Katowice, comprising a 1800-seat concert hall, a chamber hall and numerous workshop and educational spaces. The concert hall, with acoustics designed by Nagata Acoustics, has a reputation as one of the world's finest in terms of acoustics. On 13 January 2023, the pipe organ – one of the largest in a European concert hall, built by Anton Škrabl of Slovenia – were heard for the first time. The venue's outstanding qualities are widely recognised by audiences, artists and the music community, as evidenced by the fact that the NOSPR has been admitted into the ECHO network of the most prestigious concert halls in Europe.

The NOSPR is the organiser of the ‘New Polish Music' Festival of Premieres, the ‘Katowice Kultura Natura' Festival and the Karol Szymanowski International Music Competition, which includes five categories: piano, violin, voice, string quartet and composition. More info: szymanowski-competition.com.

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