PYONGYANG: Cold War foes the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) enjoyed a rare moment of harmony yesterday that could bring them closer together, when the New York Philharmonic played an unprecedented concert in Pyongyang.
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Music director Lorin Maazel accepts a bouquet from a DPRK woman after the New York Philharmonic's path-breaking performance in Pyongyang yesterday. AP |
The DPRK audience gave America's oldest orchestra a standing ovation after a rousing set that took in Dvorak, Gershwin and a Korean folk song. Some Philharmonic members were so overcome they left the stage in tears.
"Little did we know that we would be thrown into orbit by this stunning, stunning reaction," said Lorin Maazel, the Philharmonic's music director.
DPRK television broadcast the whole concert live.
"We fully appreciate the performance this evening by the New York Philharmonic, not just as an art performance, but as the good feelings of the ordinary citizens of the United States toward the Korean people," said Pak Chol, the DPRK's counselor of the Korea-Asia Pacific Peace Committee.
The concert was born out of talks last year on ending the DPRK 's nuclear arms program in exchange for aid.
Analysts say Washington sees this visit, the biggest by a US group since the 1950-53 Korean War, as akin to cultural overtures it made to other Cold War foes decades ago and which eventually helped to ease tension.
"When we received this very warm and enthusiastic reception, we felt that indeed, there may be a mission accomplished here," the Philharmonic's Maazel said.
"We may have been instrumental in opening a little door. If it does become seen in retrospect as a historical moment, we will all have feel very proud to have been part of it."
