Tuesday, 02.26.08
A classical coup
MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images
When North Korea falls
October 2006
Robert D. Kaplan discusses the aftermath of a hypothetical North Korean collapse.
Mother of all mothers
September 2004
North Korea expert B.R. Myers advocates an American pull-out from the peninsula.
North Korea: The war game
July/August 2005
Scott Stossel describes the Pentagon's preparations for North Korean brinkmanship and war.
I was Kim Jong Il's cook
January/February 2004
Politically, the concert flopped. Kim Jong Il, who
invited the
The only unambiguous winner was the orchestra itself. Splashed across the front pages of national newspapers, the Philharmonic reclaimed a cultural authority for classical music belied by its graying, shrinking audience. As American orchestras struggle to stay afloat here, North Korean artists enjoy generous government subsidies in return for their service as professional glorifiers of Kim Jong Il and the Juche Idea. Fortunately, the popularity of classical music outside America is growing, particularly in China. But for home-grown fans and performers, the question is: will America preserve its Western cultural patrimony, with the goodwill it buys, or abandon it to the East?
Violins of appeasementThe New York Post calls the Philharmonic's good will tour a starry-eyed "disgrace." |
No translation neededLorin Maazel, director of the New York Philharmonic, argues that music can overcome politics. |
Kow-towing to terrorB.R. Myers, an Atlantic contributing editor, believes that the orchestra is playing right into the Dear Leader's anti-American propaganda. |
