PYONGYANG, Feb 26, 2008 (AFP) — The New York Philharmonic filled a Pyongyang theatre with the "Star-Spangled Banner" and a popular Korean folk song as it played an historic concert aimed at boosting US ties with communist North Korea.
The 106-member orchestra received a lengthy standing ovation and flowers at the end of the concert, which was broadcast live in North Korea and around the world and also featured melodies from Antonin Dvorak and US composer George Gershwin.
"When we received this very warm and enthusiastic reception, we felt that indeed there may be a mission accomplished here, we may have been instrumental in opening a little door here," musical director Lorin Maazel told a press conference after the performance.
"And we simply hope that, if that's true, in the long run it will be seen as a watershed, a moment in history."
The groundbreaking performance by the oldest US symphony orchestra -- which began with the North Korean and US anthems -- comes amid a tense diplomatic stand-off over the hardline regime's nuclear programmes
The orchestra is the first major US musical group to visit North Korea, and has become the largest US delegation to visit a country that in 2002 was labeled by US President George W. Bush as part of an "axis of evil".
The group began the night with applause from the well-dressed crowd as it took the stage, adorned with the US and North Korean flags, at the packed 1,500-seat East Pyongyang Grand Theatre.
"My colleagues of the New York Philharmonic and I are pleased to play in this fine hall today," Maazel told the audience after a rendition of Richard Wagner's brief prelude to Act III of "Lohengrin".
"Please have a good time," he then said in Korean, before raising his baton to lead the group in Dvorak's stirring "New World" Symphony, which was followed by the work of Gershwin.
"It is called 'An American in Paris'. Someday an American may write a work called 'Americans in Pyongyang'," Maazel said.
After several encores including Georges Bizet's "L'Arlesienne", Leonard Bernstein's overture to "Candide" and the Korean folk song "Arirang", the Philharmonic received a standing ovation.
Tuesday's concert was supported by the US State Department, even though Washington and Pyongyang have remained technically at war since the 1950-1953 Korean conflict.
It coincided with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to China, during which she urged Beijing to exert all its influence with close ally Pyongyang to ensure it moves forward with nuclear disarmament.
In China, Rice said the concert was "a good thing."
"It's a society that certainly needs ways to open up, but it's a long way from playing that concert to changing the nature of the politics of North Korea," Rice said.
A landmark six-nation deal reached in February last year offered the North a million tonnes of fuel oil, normalised ties with the United States and Japan and a formal peace treaty, if it scrapped all nuclear programmes and material.
The North had agreed to disable its atomic plants and fully declare all nuclear programmes by the end of last year. But it missed the deadline amid a dispute with the United States over the declaration.
The White House on Tuesday downplayed the diplomatic import of the musical event.
"The president thinks that, at the end of the day, this is a concert," spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
"And it's not going to change -- it's not necessarily going to change -- the behaviour of a regime that has not been as forthcoming as we need them to be on their nuclear activities."
Chief US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill, the top negotiator for the six-party talks, endorsed the Philharmonic's trip to North Korea, according to executive director and president Zarin Mehta.
"It was felt by Mr Hill that showing this side of our Western culture in Pyongyang would help in pursuing the talks in a much better atmosphere," Mehta told AFP ahead of the concert.
Maazel said the concert was "a little door being opened by members of the North Korean government who felt it was time that a door be opened.
"When the North Koreans see us live on TV they will see North Americans who are beautiful people... people who care about the arts, who don't have fangs, who are passionate about their work, speaking a language they can relate to."
On Wednesday, select Philharmonic musicians are scheduled to perform chamber music with members of North Korea's State Symphony Orchestra. Maazel is also to conduct a rehearsal of the Korean group before the Philharmonic heads to Seoul.
"It's great to be part of this, but the fact that this country was united and now is divided is sad," said Lisa Kim, one of several Korean-American members of the Philharmonic whose parents lived through the Korean War.
"I hope that our gesture and this type of event will gradually warm things up and lead to a better future for all of us," Kim, the orchestra's associate principal second violinist, told AFP on the eve of the concert.
"Music has no boundaries -- it's the best way to communicate."
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