Tempus Fugit

미 콘돌리자 라이스 국무장관은 “콘서트를 여는 것에서 북한의 정치특성을 바꾸는데 까지는 갈 길이 멀다. 그러나 뉴욕필의 방북공연은 긍정적으로 생각한다”고 말했다.

미 정부는 곧 고립 강경공산주의 국가에서의 이벤트가 단순히 공연이라고 지적했으며, 지나 10월 합의된 국제협약에 따라 핵프로그램을 신고해야하는 의무를 북한에 상기시켰다.

T J 펨펠 북한 전문가이자 버클리대 동아시아학 학장은 “지금은 협상에 중요한 시기”라고 말했으나, “필하모닉 방문이 분위기가 확실히 무르익고 있다는 것을 보여준다. 영변에서도 상당한 진전이 이뤄져 왔다”고 덧붙였다.

It has been called Dvorak diplomacy, sing-song diplomacy and musical diplomacy. With the full backing of the US State Department, the New York Philharmonic performed at the heart of George Bush's "axis of evil" yesterday under the baton of Lorin Maazel, after bringing to Pyongyang the largest cultural delegation since the end of the Korean war.

North Korea's "Dear Leader", Kim Jong-il, was not among the 2,500 party officials and other specially invited guests who thronged the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre. He did not need to be. He had already chalked up a major propaganda victory by successfully inviting the American orchestra.

The concert began with renditions of both countries' national anthems, and included, appropriately, Dvorak's Symphony No 9, From the New World, composed in 1893 during a visit by the Czech composer to the United States. Other works were Gershwin's An American in Paris and Wagner's Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin. The encore was the Korean traditional folk song, "Arirang", which brought the audience to its feet for a five-minute ovation. "There may be a mission accomplished here. We may have been instrumental in opening a little door," Mr Maazel said.

The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, who is currently touring the region, said: "It's a long way from playing that concert to changing the nature of the politics of North Korea, but I think it's a good thing."

Washington was quick to point out that the event in the isolated hardline communist state was just a concert and reminded North Korea of its obligations to come clean on its nuclear programmes in line with international commitments agreed last October.

"It's not necessarily going to change the behaviour of a regime that is not being as forthcoming as we need them to be on their nuclear activities," said the White House press secretary, Dana Perino. North Korea missed a deadline of 31 December to disable its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, although experts say this is less critical than its failure to provide a full account of North Korean proliferation activities and uranium enrichment in time for the same deadline.

"This is a critical time for the negotiations," said T J Pempel, a North Korea expert and head of Berkeley's East Asian Institute. But he added: "The Philarmonic visit indicates that the climate is definitely warming. There has been significant progress on Yongbyon."

North Korean officials yesterday confirmed that the rock star Eric Clapton had been invited to perform in Pyongyang in 2009, following UK performances by the North Korean State Symphony Orchestra.

크리스토퍼 힐 미 국무부 차관보는 수치가 정확하고 입증이 가능할 경우, 플루토늄 양이 30-40킬로인지 50킬로 인지는 상관하지 않는다고 밝혔다.

반면, 한국 ‘문지기’(대통령)에 변화가 있었다. 현대 출신 고집 센 산업주의자 이명박 대통령은 전임 대통령들 두 명의 “햇볕정책”의 라이트를 완전히 끄지는 않겠지만, 적어도 여기에 디머 스위치를 켤 것이다. 그는 북한 투자에서 실체적인 수익을 보길 원한다는 것을 명확히 했으며, ‘상호주의’라는 단어는 이제 서울에서 유행어다. 그는 부처들을 폐지하고 오랫동안 보수주의자들이 북한에 너무 부드럽다고 본 통일부를 외교부에 포함시키는 등 격렬한 시작을 했다. 그는 또한 한국의 비전을 중국과 북한에서 일본과 미국 쪽으로 옮겼다. 중국은 신임 대통령을 경계하고 있으며, 북한은 완전한 침묵을 유지했다.

이 모든 것이 계속된 지연과 답답함에 더해지고 있다. 그러나 이 (6자회담) 과정이 붕괴되는 것은 누구에게도 이득이 안 된다. 한국은 북한의 정상화를 다룰 필요가 있고, 북한정권은 연료와 쌀이 필요하다. 이와 관련한 외교는 외교관들을 지치게 할지 모르지만, 이것이 아직도 유일한 문제다.

About 18 months ago North Korea conducted its first nuclear test. Yesterday Lorin Maazel conducted a stirring rendition of North Korea's national anthem before launching into The Star-Spangled Banner. The select audience in the East Pyongyang grand theatre gave a standing ovation to the New York Philharmonic. Eric Clapton could be next up on the North Korean circuit, the Financial Times reports. The expectation of change created by high-profile events such as these is often unsustainably high. It would be naive to expect that Dvorak or Gershwin alone could open the eyes of North Koreans to the outside world. But the very fact that the visit took place at all is progress. Exploding timpani is an advance on exploding bombs. The last time as many Americans arrived in Pyongyang was in 1953.

Offstage, the mood music is mixed. After initial progress in disabling North Korea's reactor at Yongbyon, denuclearisation has hit a roadblock, namely the requirement of North Korea to make a "complete and correct" declaration of its nuclear assets. The declaration contains three elements: the exact amount of plutonium it has acquired, a full list of its facilities and, finally, nuclear programmes, including cooperation with other countries. The sensitive part of this is the disputed existence of a programme to enrich uranium, and to what extent North Korea cooperated with Syria. These may be harder truths to unravel than the amount of plutonium that it has. Christopher Hill, the US diplomat responsible for negotiations, said he did not care whether the figure is 30, 40 or 50 kilograms of plutonium, as long as it is accurate and verifiable.

In the meantime, there has been a change of the guard in South Korea. While not turning off the light of the "sunshine policy" of his two predecessors, President Lee Myung-bak, a hard-nosed industrialist from Hyundai, has at least applied the dimmer. He made it clear he wants to see tangible returns on an investment in North Korea, and reciprocity is now the buzz word in Seoul. He has made a storming start, closing ministries and subsuming the reunification ministry, long seen by conservatives as soft on the north, into the foreign ministry. He has also swung his country's vision away from China and the North, and towards Japan and the US. China is wary about the new president, and North Korea has maintained total silence.

All of which adds up to further delay and frustration. But it is in no one's interests for the process to collapse. South Korea needs to manage North Korea's normalisation. And Pyongyang needs the fuel oil and the rice. The diplomacy involved may exhaust the diplomats, but theirs is still the only game in town.

미국에서 가장 저명한 오케스트라가 미국의 증오에 기반한 나라 북한에 간 이번 방문에 대해 사람들의 기대가 높았다.

문화교류가 미-중 관계 및 미-소 관계 변화를 도왔던 것처럼, 일각에서는 이번 공연이 북-미관계 해빙의 시작이라든지 심지어 긴장완화가 될 것이라고 기대했다. 그러나 공연이 그렇게 잘 받아들여질 것이라고는 감히 기대할 수 없었다.

시작부터 콘서트는 이례적이었다. 북한과 미국의 국기가 걸린 무대에서 뉴욕필은 북한과 미국의 국가를 연주했다. 18개월 전만 해도 이러한 일은 생각할 수도 없는 일이었다.

뉴요필은 드보르작의 신세계 교향곡을 연주했다. 관객들의 박수소리는 농작물생산에 관한 혁명오페라에서 나올 만한 종류의 것이었다. 이러한 분위기는 로린 마젤 지휘자가 다음 곡을 소개하면서 바뀌었다. 그는 “다음 곡은 미국에서 가장 유명한 작곡가가 쓴 것이며, 파리의 미국인이라는 곡입니다.”라고 설명한 후, “언젠가는 평양의 미국인이라는 작품이 나올지도 모른다”.고 말했다.

관객들은 열광적인 박수갈채를 보냈다. 어색한 것이 없어졌다. 이 공연이 긴장완화를 촉진시킨다면, 그것은 여기서 시작되었다.

드보르작의 교향곡과 달리, 관계들은 거슈윈의 곡에 반응을 하는 것처럼 보였다. 사실 드보르작과 비슷한 곡들은 북한에서 유행했던 종류지만, 거슈윈은 다른 것이다. 관객들은 모두 갑자기 훨씬 더 연주에 빠져든 것처럼 보였다.

많은 북한주민들이 기립박수에 재빨리 합류했다.

그리고 ‘흥분의 도가니’가 시작되었다. 앙코르 공연으로 뉴욕필이 번스타인의 오페라 캔디드 서곡을 연주했다. 마젤은 이후, 뉴욕필과 전 지휘자 번스타인과의 특별한 관계를 설명했다. “지휘자 번스타인이 돌아온다고 생각해 보라, 한 번 더 지휘를 하면서”라고 마젤이 거의 속삭이듯이 말했다. “마에스트로, 부탁합니다”.라고 한국어로 말했고, 교향악단이 그 없이 비제의 파랑돌레를 연주하도록 무대 뒤로 사라졌다.

텅 빈 초록색 연단은 가슴을 뛰게 만들었다. 특히나 역사적인 의미를 생각하면 더욱 그랬다. 번스타인은 1959년 뉴욕필을 이끌고 소련에서 지휘했었다.

진짜 마법은 마지막에 펼쳐졌다.

바이올린이 첫 부분을 연주하자, “아리랑, 아리랑”이라며, 북한사람들이 서로에게 속삭였다. 2층과 3층 관람석에 앉은 사람들은 연주자들을 보기 위해 몸을 구부렸다. 피콜로가 곡조를 드러냈고, 바이올린이 약하게 노래했다.

아리랑 연주가 끝나자 나온 박수갈채가 감동적이었다. 그리고 이는 북한에서 보기 힘든 무언가를 보여줬다. 바로 ‘자발적인 행동’이다.

모든 관객들이 일어섰고, 이번에는 한복을 입은 여성들만 미소를 띤 것이 아니라, 그전에는 무표정했던 관료들도 웃음을 지었다. 이들은 박수를 보냈고, 뉴욕필은 고개 숙여 인사했다.

단원들이 무대를 떠난 뒤에도 박수갈채는 몇 분간 계속되었다. 마젤과 콘서트 마스터가 텅 빈 무대로 돌아오자, 일부 북한주민들이 머리 위로 박수갈채를 보냈다. “그들이 음악을 통해 너무 친절한 것처럼 보였다”고 한 북한 여성이 말했다.

“제일 좋았던 곡은 아리랑이다. 깊은 감명을 받았다.”

마젤 역시 확실히 감동을 받았다. “(북한주민들이) 멋지고 놀라운 반응을 보여줬다. 우리는 아주 성공적인 공연을 많이 해왔지만, 오랫동안 이런 식의 열정적인 반응을 보지 못했다. 아주 열정적인 반응을 보았을 때, 임무가 달성되었을지 모른다고 생각했다.”

The final strains of "Arirang", the heart-rending Korean folk song about separation, had not even ended when the thumping applause started filling the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre last night.

Middle-aged men with purple-tinted glasses and women in traditional dress, visiting South Korean sponsors and Manhattan matrons in fur, they all leapt to their feet to celebrate the New York Philharmonic's emotionally charged debut performance in Pyongyang.

It felt like history.

Expectations were high for this trip, where the US's most prestigious orchestra went to a country founded on hatred of America.

Just as cultural exchanges helped transform the US's relationship with China and the Soviet Union, some hoped this would be the beginning of warmer relations and, perhaps, even détente, with North Korea. But few could have dared to hope the performance would have been so well received.

From the start, the concert was exceptional. On a stage flanked by North Korean and US flags, the orchestra played "Aegukga", the North Korean national anthem, and the "Star Spangled Banner". This would have been unthinkable 18 months ago.

The New York Phil moved on to Dvorak's New World Symphony . The applause was the kind of applause the audience might usually give at a revolutionary opera about agricultural production. The mood changed when Lorin Maazel, music director, turned to introduce the next piece. "It is written by America's most well-known composer and it's called An American in Paris ," he explained. "Some day a composer might write a work entitled Americans in Pyongyang."

The audience broke into rapturous applause. The ice was broken. If this concert precipitates a thaw, it started here.

Unlike with the Dvorak symphony, the members of the audience seemed to respond to the Gershwin piece. Indeed, Dvorak and the like are de rigeur in North Korea, but Gershwin is something else. The audience as a whole suddenly seemed much more engaged. Many North Koreans were quick to join the standing ovation.

And then the fireworks began. For the encore, the orchestra played Leonard Bernstein's Candide , after which Mr Maazel explained the orchestra's special attachment to its former conductor.

"Imagine Maestro Bernstein coming back and -conducting once more," Mr Maazel almost whispered. "Maestro, do me a favour," he said in Korean, backing off the stage to leave the orchestra to play Bizet's Farandole without him.

The sight of the empty green dais was spinetingling, especially given the historical connotations: Bernstein led the Phil to the Soviet Union in 1959.

The real magic came last.

" 'Arirang', 'Arirang'," the North Koreans whispered to each other as the violins played the opening notes. The people in the second and third circles leant forward to watch over the ledge. The piccolo peeped the tune, the violins sang languidly.

As the piece closed, the applause was electric. And it put on full display something rarely seen in North Korea: spontaneity.

The entire audience was on its feet but this time it was not just the women in traditional dress who were smiling, it was the previously implacable bureaucrats too. They clapped, as the orchestra bowed.

Even as the musicians left the stage, the applause continued for several minutes. As Mr Maazel and the concert master returned to the empty stage, some North Koreans applauded over their heads. "It seemed they were being so friendly with us through the music," said one North Korean woman in a peach-coloured traditional dress, white handkerchief in her hand.

"My favourite was 'Arirang'. I felt very moved."

Mr Maazel was also clearly moved. "It was a stunning, stunning reaction. We haven't seen that kind of enthusiastic reaction in a long time, and we have had some very successful concerts," he said. "When we saw that very enthusiastic reaction, we thought that maybe it was mission -accomplished

누가 알겠는가? (뉴욕필의 방북공연)이 양국간의 관계에 이정표가 될지도 모른다. 그리고 그렇게 된다면, 마젤은 제일 마지막에 웃는 사람이 될 것이다. 그의 외교노력은 지금까지 미국에서 냉담한 평가를 받아왔다. 이러한 냉담함은 마젤이 미국의 인권상황을 비난했을 때 더 격렬해졌다. “유리로 된 집에 사는 사람들이 벽돌을 던져서는 안 되지 않는가?”라고 그가 말했다. “죄수들과 죄수를 다루는 방식에 관해 우리 평판이 그렇게 모두 깨끗하기만 한가? 우리가 전 세계에서 배울 만한 선례를 세웠는가?“

이 만만찮은 음악가에게는 양면이 있다. 한 쪽은 6년 전, 많은 사람들이 힘없는 인물이라고 생각했을 때, 72세의 나이에 뉴욕필에 쉽게 들어간 자신감에 찬 매력을 가진 사람이다. 어제 그는 평양 공연에서 “좋은 시간 되세요”라고 상당한 한국어로 말했다.

마젤의 다른 면(과민하며, 어렵고, 거만한)은 격정을 돋우는 걸 즐긴다. 그는 자신의 첫 오페라를 환영한 부정적인 리뷰를 무시했다. 그리고 그는 일류 지휘자에 대한 기준 보수를 높이는데 일조한 자신의 역할을 뉘우치지 않았다.

그러나 그의 이력은 여전히 굉장하다. 바이로이트에서 미국인으로는 처음으로 바그너 페스티벌에서 지휘봉을 잡았다. (2년 후 강제로 퇴출될 때까지) 비엔나국립오페라극장의 감독 및 수석 지휘자였다. 그리고 이제는 음악적 조정자까지? 북한과 미국의 국기가 평양의 동평양대극장에 걸렸다. 마젤의 선동으로, 오케스트라는 양국의 국가를 연주했다. 실로 미국의 국가가 평양에서 연주된 것은 최초일 것이다. 그가 이 부분에 대해서 자랑하면 놀라지 말라.

“Some men grow old and bitter,” Lorin Maazel once told a journalist. “I grow old and mellow.” It was a surprising statement from a maestro with an iron will and an irrepressible appetite for causing a commotion. And when the 77-year-old chief conductor of the New York Philharmonic returns with his orchestra from a landmark trip to North Korea - the biggest US invasion there since the Korean War - few will be acclaiming Maazel the Mellow.

Officially this was not a political initative. The concert yesterday in the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre was, ostensibly, organised solely by the Philharmonic itself. Condoleezza Rice, who is in Beijing, stayed away. North Korea's reclusive dictator, Kim Jong Il, was not spotted by any of the 80 Western journalists in attendance. But the audience who cheered the Philharmonic's performances of Dvorák's New World symphony and Gershwin's An American in Paris included North Korea's deputy nuclear negotiator, Ri Gun. Sitting nexte to him was William Perry, a former US Secretary of Defence.

Who knows? It may prove a milestone in the relationship between the two countries. And if it does, Maazel will have the last laugh, for his efforts at diplomacy have so far been received coolly back home - a frostiness that intensified when Maazel criticised the US human rights record. “People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw bricks, should they?” he said. “Is our reputation all that clean when it comes to prisoners and the way they are treated? Have we set an example to be emulated all over the world?”

There are two sides to this formidable musician. One is the confident charmer who eased into the New York Phil six years ago at the age of 72, when many thought him a spent force. Yesterday he addressed Pyongyang with “Please have a good time” in passable Korean.

The other Maazel - prickly, difficult, overbearing - enjoys fanning the flames. He brushed off the damning reviews that greeted his first opera, a mawkish adaptation of Orwell's 1984 that had its premiere at Covent Garden in 2005 only because Maazel paid some £400,000 towards it. And he has been unrepentant about his prominent role in raising the standard fees for top-flight maestros.

Yet his record remains formidable. First American to conduct at the Wagner festival in Bayreuth. Former general manager and chief conductor at the Vienna State Opera (until he was forced out after two years). And now, musical peacemaker? Two flags, North Korean and American, hung in the Pyongyang concert hall; at Maazel's instigation the orchestra played both countries' national anthems - surely the first time The Star-Spangled Banner has been played in this Communist stronghold. Don't be surprised if he crows about that one.