by RUTH KIM
A world-renowned American conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Lorin Maazel passed away at age 84 in his home in Castleton, Va., on Sunday. What he left behind was not only a wealth of music and genius, but an inspiring and impassioned appeal for music to be the binding agent in a world with so many deep schisms.
During his time leading the New York Philharmonic from 2002 to 2009, Maazel sparked controversy when he accepted an invitation from the North Korean government to add Pyongyang to their concert tour in Asia. In a 2008 essay titled, “Why We’ll Play Pyongyang”, published in the Wall Street Journal, the conductor eloquently explained his thoughts behind the decision.
“I have always believed that the arts, per se, and their exponents, artists, have a broader role to play in the public arena,” he wrote. “But it must be totally apolitical, nonpartisan and free of issue-specific agendas. It is a role of the highest possible order: bringing peoples and their cultures together on common ground, where the roots of peaceful interchange can imperceptibly but irrevocably take hold. If all goes well, the presence of the New York Philharmonic in Pyongyang might gently influence the perception of our country there. If we are gradually to improve U.S.-Korean relations, such events have the potential to nudge open a door that has been closed too long.”
Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic at the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre. Photo via Medici.tv
Maazel, who described himself as “an artist passionately devoted to freedom of expression and respect for the individual,” was caught in many politically charged circumstances during his musical lifetime, such as driving to East Berlin and back while he served as the music director of the Deutsche Oper from 1965 to 1971. Acting almost as a human rights activist with an armory of music, Maazel aimed to use the power of song to stand against the unimaginable violations of human rights that happens “brutally under tyrannical regimes, subtly in more open societies,” he wrote.
In the video below, you’ll view a glimpse of the New York Philharmonic’s performance at the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre in February 2008. Hundreds of North Korea denizens stand in respect as the orchestra plays first the National Anthem of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, followed by the United States’ “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
And heres their performance of Korean folk song “Arirang.”
In the extended version of the performance (which can be found here), which included Dvorak’s New World Symphony and George Gershwin’s “American in Paris,” the concert is introduced by a North Korean woman dressed in hanbok.
She said, “One of the world’s most famous and venerable orchestras, the New York Philharmonic, is performing in Pyongyang for the first time. Today’s concert with the New York Philharmonic may well herald the first step in a rapprochement between both countries.”
Similar sentiments are echoed in the closing words of Maazel’s essay: “A similar transformation may one day come to pass in Korea, where many believe the time has come to take the tiny steps that must be taken to lessen tensions, forging small accommodations and leading perhaps to a lasting reconciliation. We all wish them well on their way, long and arduous as it may be.”
Top photo via Getty Images
