Arts News

New York Philharmonic in historic North Korean debut

Feb 26, 2008, 13:39 GMT

Pyongyang - The New York Philharmonic received thunderous applause from a North Korean audience when it played its historic, unprecendented concert Tuesday evening in the communist, nuclear- armed country. Members of the New York Philharmonic pose for a photo in front of the terminal at Pyongyang's Sunan International Airport, North Korea on February 25, 2008, after arriving in the North Korean capital for an unprecedented three-day visit. EPA/KCNA

Members of the New York Philharmonic pose for a photo in front of the terminal at Pyongyang's Sunan International Airport, North Korea on February 25, 2008, after arriving in the North Korean capital for an unprecedented three-day visit. EPA/KCNAUnder the direction of conductor Lorin Maazel the performance began with the national anthems of both countries and included pieces by Richard Wagner, Antonin Dvorak's and George Gershwin's An American in Paris. It concluded with the Korean folk piece Arirang. Before the Philharmonic took to the stage, Maazel described the concert as a 'gesture of goodwill and friendship.' The concert at the East Pyongyang Great Theatre was broadcast live on North Korea's state-run TV and represented the first important cultural contact between the US and the isolated country. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il did not attend the concert. About 300 people, including the 106 musicians of the orchestra, staff and journalists landed in Pyongyang on Monday via Beijing. Zarin Mehta, the Philharmonic's president and executive director, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa from Beijing that the broadcast in the state-controlled media 'is an extraordinary event' as the concert 'is not recorded, it's live, and that's unheard of here as I am told by Korea experts.' Members of the oldest symphony orchestra in the US were also to conduct master classes for North Korean students and play chamber music with members of the North's State Symphony Orchestra, according to Mehta. The two countries do not maintain diplomatic relations and negotiations between the US and North Korea have stalled this year in the long-running stalemate over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.