As we reported before, Daniel J. Wakin has been covering The New York Philharmonic’s East Asian tour for The Times. He just cranked out this interesting article, which The Times online has posted.
If you haven’t gone to check out his ArtsBeat coverage, do so now. It’s kind of unprecedented. There are sound clips from the welcome concert the North Korean government put on for the Phil the night they arrived. There are also clips from a North Korean English class. This, along with a slide show of essentailly forbidden photographs that the North Korean monitors seemed to throw up their hands and allow.
The tone of writing has been quite emotional from anyone who’s written either in support of or criticizing The Phil’s trip into the dark heart of North Korea (Steve Smith has been writing for Time Out).
Wakin’s review of today’s concert is no exception. There seems to be a plea in the writing, a longing to communicate with the North Korean people. From the sound of it, music was the perfect way to do that.
But there’s also an underlying effort to try to confirm Western suspicions of Kim Jong-il’s despotism. Wakin suggests that, among other things, certain computer labs and classrooms that the members of the press were allowed to visit were staged. I’m not saying he’s wrong, I’m just saying, it’s an interesting piece of arts journalism, and it’s the result of an event that has actually caught many people off guard in terms of its importance. The NY Philharmonic’s trip to North Korea will undoubtedly have a major impact on the world, if even on the lives of the few hundred people who were hand picked by the North Korean government to sit in on today’s concert.
ART IS OUTREACH. It always has been. And, if allowed to be practiced freely, always will be.
The performance will be broadcast tonight at 8PM on channel 13.
[Update]
T-Bone Tommasini chimes in, writing about the 4am live stream he watched via computer. He criticizes Maazel’s program choice, calling it safe, and citing a missed opportunity to include the music of a living composer. But you know, then that choice would be up for political scrutiny: Which composer? What style? What gender? The fact that the orchestra made it into Korea at all is an amazing feat. Baby steps, T-Bone. Baby steps.
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