The Marmot’s Hole

UPDATE: OK, the KCNA piece on the visit was short and not particularly interesting. Basically, the New York Philharmonic came, some North Korean big wigs attended along with foreign dignitaries, and they played these songs (including the Star Spangled Banner). Oh, and the orchestra, “which has a long history and is globally renowned,” played well.

In the Rodong Shinmun, the New York Philharmonic story — courtesy the KCNA — was pushed to page 4, sharing the page with a story on a Kimjongilia flower exhibit in Dalian, China and a North Korea book, photo and crafts exhibit somewhere else in China. Page 1, in case you were wondering, was a congratulatory note from Kim Jong-il to Raul Castro and news that an anthology on Juche has run countless prints over the last 30 years.

Lorin Maazel, however, dig get his photo stuck on the KCNA’s main page.

ORIGINAL POST: The New York Philharmonic rang in a new era of friendship and cultural exchange between the great Korean and American peoples yesterday with a concert at the East Pyongyang Grand Theater. Or I guess that’s the official line:

The New York Philharmonic brought music diplomacy to the heart of communist North Korea in a historic concert Tuesday, playing a program highlighting American music in the nuclear-armed country that considers the U.S. its mortal enemy.

The Philharmonic, which began with North Korea’s national anthem, “Patriotic Song,” is the first major American cultural group to perform in the country and brought the largest-ever delegation from the United States to visit its longtime foe.

The unprecedented concert represents a warming in relations of the nations that remain locked in negotiations over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programs.

Great. The audience — no doubt spontaneously — applauded the “Star-Spangled Banner” after it was played:

After performing North Korea’s national song, the Philharmonic followed with the U.S. anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The audience stood during both anthems and held their applause until both had been performed.

Well, at least that makes them better than Montreal Canadians fans.

Director Lorin Maazel was his usual loquacious self:

“My colleagues of the New York Philharmonic and I are very pleased to play in this fine hall,” music director Lorin Maazel said in English at one point. He then told the audience to “Please have a good time” in Korean.

[...]

Ahead of the performance in the isolated North, Maazel said the orchestra has been a force for change in the past, noting that its 1959 performance in the Soviet Union was part of that country’s opening up to the outside world that eventually resulted in the downfall of the regime.

“The Soviets didn’t realize that it was a two-edged sword, because by doing so they allowed people from outside the country to interact with their own people, and to have an influence,” he told journalists in Pyongyang. “It was so long lasting that eventually the people in power found themselves out of power.”

Oh my God, I think we’ve finally discovered a group of people even more self-congratulatory and self-important than bloggers — orchestra conductors!

When asked if he thought the same could happen in North Korea, he said: “There are no parallels in history; there are similarities.”

While the Soviets were viewed as a threatening superpower, Maazel said the Korean Peninsula has a different role in the world because of its small size.

“To draw a parallel would be to do a disservice to the people who live here and who are trying through their art and through their culture to reach out to other human beings, to make a better world for themselves and for all of us,” he said.

You know, frankly, I didn’t really oppose this concert before Maazel started opening his mouth. I didn’t think it would do much good, but I didn’t really think it would hurt that much beyond the usual “lending legitimacy to the North Korean regime” caveats. But man, Maazel was the wrong guy to lead this. We’d have been better off sending Bruce Cummings — at least he knows what he’s talking about.

Still, he said the concert could be a small step that he hoped would spark other cultural and social exchanges.

“We are very humble. We are here to make music,” he said.

Then shut up and make music.

Following the brief prelude to Act 3 of Richard Wagner’s “Lohengrin,” the orchestra moved on to pieces that highlighted the ensemble’s importance in American music.

That included two pieces that premiered with the Philharmonic: Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 - popularly known as the “New World Symphony,” written while the Czech composer lived in the United States and was inspired by native American themes - and George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris.”

“Someday a composer may write a work entitled ‘Americans in Pyongyang,”‘ Maazel said in introducing the Gershwin work, a remark which drew warm applause from the audience.

Ha! Maazel said a funny. Well, Mr. Maazel, there still is an “American in Pyongyang,” Joe Dresnok. You should make it a point to meet him while you’re in town — you guys would really hit it off. There used to be another American up there, too, but he knew enough to get the hell out when he got the chance.

While the concert has been front-page news in SOUTH Korea, it doesn’t appear to have made the front pages north of the DMZ:

On the streets of Pyongyang earlier Tuesday, North Koreans said they were aware of the orchestra’s visit. But the trip was not yet front-page news here: A picture of the orchestra’s airport arrival to the North Korean capital was printed inside the main Rodong Sinmun newspaper, along with brief stories on the event.

I’ll try to sneak a peak at Ye Olde Rodong via the KCNA later — I’m keen to see how they’re presenting it.

Oh, and Kim Jong-il couldn’t be bothered to attend. Apparently, he was busy shooting illegal fishermen or something like that. The Potemkin Village, however, was on display, as is always the case when journalists are in town:

At the Grand People’s Study House, the country’s largest library said to include 30 million volumes, journalists saw North Koreans looking up information in an electronic catalog, reading industrial journals and attending language and science classes.

In one boisterous classroom, teacher Jeon Hyun-mi led students through an English lesson using materials from “Family Album U.S.A.,” an American-designed program based on the life of a fictional family.

As she questioned them about details of the characters, students enthusiastically shouted out “yes” or “no” and brief replies.

The teacher said she welcomed the orchestra’s visit as a way to bring the people of the two countries together, implying it was only the governments that harbored differences.

“We think we have good relations, people are very close,” Jeon said. The trip “is a gesture of improvement” in ties between the United States and the North.

Kim Kwang-chol, a 24-year-old computer technician, was searching the library’s catalog for a photo of the peninsula’s tallest peak, Mount Paektu, that he said he would use in a multimedia presentation.

“I think it is a very good phenomenon that the New York Philharmonic is coming,” he said. “I think that this visit will help relations between the United States and North Korea improve.”

“This chance will be a good signal for (the North) and the United States,” said Kim Seon-hwa, a 25-year-old watching a Chinese instructional CD video on flower arranging. “We Korean people like cultural exchanges.”

Yes, cultural exchanges are OK… as long as they don’t involve bodily fluid exchanges.

What’s next for the New York Philharmonic, Khartoum? Well, at least we know what’s up next for Pyongyang — North Korea has invited Eric Clapton to perform. Apparently, Kim Jong-il’s second son is a big fan:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s second son, Kim Jong-chul, is reportedly such a huge fan of Clapton that he traveled to Germany in 2006 to see the guitarist perform in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Leipzig, and Berlin. This has prompted the speculation that the younger Kim may be behind the country’s invitation.

That’s just creepy.

And in a completely unrelated note, Duran Duran will be playing in Seoul on April 17. Debito will be pleased.