hankyoreh

The New York Philharmonic was in Seoul Wednesday after its unprecedented two-day visit to North Korea.

The plane carrying about 260 people, including orchestra members, supporting staff and journalists from across the world, arrived at Incheon airport in the afternoon.

The oldest U.S. orchestra received an emotional standing ovation from the North Korean and foreign audience when it finished its historic concert in Pyongyang Tuesday night with "Arirang," a Korean folk song which is popular in both Koreas. The concert was broadcast live across North Korea and elsewhere in the world.

Earlier on Wednesday, the orchestra performed with North Korea's State Symphony Orchestra at Pyongyang's Moranbong Theater under the direction of the U.S. orchestra's music director Lorin Maazel. The joint performance was off-limits to foreign journalists.

Four members each from the two orchestras also performed chamber music, including F. Mendelssohn's String Octet and a piece written by an American girl in honor of North Korean children, in a cultural program that preceded the joint concert.

The composer is 12-year-old Sarah Taslima, a Bangladeshi-born American who is taught music by a member of the New York orchestra.

The Americans gave master classes to North Korean college students and also musical instruments, CDs and books.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il did not appear in public while the American musicians were in Pyongyang.

They were seen off at Pyongyang's Sunan airport by Song Sok-hwan, North Korea's deputy minister of culture, and other Pyongyang officials. "We're happy because the concert was a success," Song said.

North Korea's state media praised Tuesday's concert.

"The world-renowned Philharmonic with a long history showed exquisite and refined execution and high representation under Chief Conductor Lorin Maazel," the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported late Tuesday.

Maazel said he hoped the performance would one day be seen as a watershed event and that "there may be a mission accomplished here, we may have been instrumental in opening a little door here." The U.S. orchestra is scheduled to perform before a sold-out audience in Seoul Thursday.


SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap)