"THE PYONGYANG CONCERT"
featuring the
New York Philharmonic
Lorin Maazel conductor
On February 26, 2008, the New York Philharmonic gave the first-ever performance by an American orchestra in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, also known as communist North Korea.
Music became diplomacy when conductor Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic, opened the concert in East Pyongyang’s Grand Theatre with both the American and the North Korean national anthems. The program includes music by Wagner, Dvořák, Gershwin, Bizet and Bernstein. This courageous musical project also united Korean and American musicians, who, together, produced a technically brilliant performance. The musicians barely spoke to one another, communicating in exchanged glances and body language, and when Lorin Maazel raised his baton at the end of the concert and the orchestra embarked on ‘Arirang,’ a lilting folk song emblematic of the North and South Korean people, the audience was obviously touched. Many concerns and doubts arose before departing to the most inaccessible country in the world. However, music knows no borders and can touch hearts and unite people everywhere – this concert provides impressive proof.
Running Time: approx. 115 minutes
REPERTOIRE:
Richard Wagner: Lohengrin, Prelude to Act III
Antonin Dvorak: Symphony No.9 in E minor "From the New World
George Gershwin: An American in Paris
George Bizet: Farandole from L'Arlesienne Suite No.2
Leonard Bernstein: Candide, Ouverture
Traditional: Arirang.