The Pyongang concert

The Pyongang concert

“The concert was historic…” Daniel J. Wakin, The New York Times „From the start, the concert was exceptional… It felt like history… If this concert… precipitates a thaw, it started here.” Anna Fifield, Financial Times The concert was the ultimate highlight of the New York Philharmonic’s trip to North Korea’s capital Pyongyang: when Music Director Lorin Maazel raised his baton for Arirang, a lilting folk song emblematic of the North and South Korean people, some audience members were obviously misty-eyed. The North Korean audience was on its feet, applauding and waving to the musicians. Does this moment symbolize a change? Can music make a real difference? The concert at the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre was certainly an impressive event. The New York Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel opened with the national anthems of North Korea and the United States, leading on to Wagner’s Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin, Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9 From the New World and An American in Paris.