Comments on: Orchestrated in Pyongyang

By: Sin-U Nam

Sin-U Nam — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:09:23 +0000

If Maazel played Musical “Yoduk Story” at Yoduk Concentration Camp in front of all those political prisoners, he can be forgiven for serenading Kim Jong-il and his murderers. He played Wagner for the murderer of 3 million people, who is equal to or much worse than Hitler, who enjoyed Wagner very much while murdering Jews in Auschwitz. If Maazel says “I did not know,” there were millions of good German who said “I did not know.” Ignorance(?) cannot be an excuse. Shame on you, Maestro Maazel, who composed “1984,” but decided to serenade the Big Brotherof the century.

By: Augustine

Augustine — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 06:48:01 +0000

I concur with Claudia that this visit was unfortunate, ill-advised, and premature. I did listen to the broadcast tonight (here in NYC USA) and there was one very poignant moment: when a musician from the Philharmonic explained her own tears which fell during the performance. It was not the beauty of the music. It was not the joy of the experience of visiting the Land of Ju-che. She explained that it was because she knew she would soon leave, but that, sadly, her hosts will remain behind in their Stalinist-enforced misery. Yes, music is joy, but under these circumstances it is a very temporary joy indeed.

By: MikeH

MikeH — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:41:49 +0000

Well, Maazel did say, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw bricks, should they? Is our standing as a country–the United States–is our reputation all that clean when it comes to prisoners and the way they are treated? Have we set an example that should be emulated all over the world? If we can answer that question honestly, I think we can then stop being judgmental about the errors made by others.” – Yeah, we sure wouldn’t want to be judgmental about the North Koreans, now would we? I can only imagine what Maazel would have said if he had led the Orchestra to other despotic regimes. The mind boggles.