The orchestra was presented with a gala performance of traditional music and dance and an endless banquet.
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PYONGYANG, North Korea — Projected on a scrim, the gently falling “snow” speckledthe precisely twirling figures at the Mansudae Art Theater in a dance depiction of Korean Communists’ guerrilla action against the Japanese. At the climax, a nighttime scene of downtown Pyongyang materialized, with warm lights glowing in the high-rise buildings.
New York Philharmonic in Asia
Daniel J. Wakin reports from the orchestra's tour of Asia.
Back Story With The Times’s Daniel J. Wakin (mp3) 
Slide Show The Philharmonic in Pyongyang
Lorin Maazel, the director of the New York Philharmonic, presented a bouquet to a performer. More Photos »
Outside, in real Pyongyang, where electricity is often scarce, most buildings were dark. Malnutrition persists in the countryside. Yet North Korea presented a lavish welcome on Monday to its latest visiting delegation, the New York Philharmonic: a gala performance of traditional music and dance, and an endless banquet with quail eggs, roast mutton and pheasant-ball soup.
American and North Korean diplomats are now haggling over Pyongyang’s promise to abandon its nuclear weapons program, and the United States has dangled the prospect of a formal peace treaty to end the Korean War if the country ultimately complies. But the orchestra’s heavily choreographed visit — to include master classes, tours of the town and a concert on Tuesday night — is the first hint of a broader thaw in a half-century-long cultural standoff.
The North Koreans opened the door to some 400 people, the largest contingent of Americans to visit this isolated, totalitarian state since the Korean War ended in 1953. The group includes musicians, orchestra staff, television production crews and 80 journalists, as well as patrons who paid $100,000 a couple.
They came bearing bows and basses rather than the arms and armor Americans carried the last time this large a contingent set foot in the North Korean capital. The brass will issue fanfares, not orders.
Critics hold out little hope that this updated version of ping-pong diplomacy, sports and cultural exchanges that helped warm relations with Maoist China in the 1970s, will do much to transform North Korea under Kim Jong-il. Mr. Kim has cracked open North Korea’s door to outside businessmen, sports teams and diplomats in the past without allowing significantly more pluralism in the country’s regimented economic and political life, and there are few signs that the arrival of the New York orchestra signals a major shift in direction.
The Bush administration has kept its distance from the event. Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, visited Seoul on Monday for South Korea’s presidential inauguration, but said she had no plans to come to Pyongyang and sought to play down the performance as a diplomatic instrument.
Even so, some proponents of engagement with North Korea say they hope that the visit will nudge North Korea to greater contact with the outside world as China, the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia press Pyongyang to end its nuclear program.
Whatever the political results, the visit will take its place with other orchestral diplomacy, including the Philadelphia Orchestra’s concert in China in 1973 and the Boston Symphony’s triumphant appearance in the Soviet Union in 1956. The New York Philharmonic also visited the Soviet Union in 1959.
“There’s no color here, everything is so gray,” said Stephen Freeman, the bass clarinetist. He pointed out the lack of traffic lights in the streets, or even traffic. “My initial reaction is it’s kind of depressing.”
Some of the musicians were troubled by the disparity between the country’s poverty and the luxury of the banquet.
“It’s painful,” said Katherine Greene, a violist. "It’s the duality of people who want to show you everything beautiful that represents their country. At the same time, it’s very sobering because I know what’s beyond the hotel and the banquet."
But Mr. Freeman gave a more upbeat review of the dance performance held after the orchestra’s arrival, which was presented especially for the Philharmonic and included numbers called “The Fan Dance,” “Winnowing” and “Water Jar Dance.” An amplified orchestra mixing Asian and Western instruments accompanied the pieces, which were models of precision.
“Beautiful costumes, excellent coordination and dancing,” he said. “I was captivated by it.”
The Philharmonic will play in the East Pyongyang Grand Theater, where music of Gershwin, Dvorak and Wagner, not to mention the American and North Korean national anthems, is to be broadcast live on state radio and television. That will be a novelty for a populace shut off from the world by government censorship.
In a special gesture, the orchestra planned to play a folk song deeply resonant to all Koreans, “Arirang,” as an encore.
The trip has been stirring for the eight orchestra members of Korean origin.
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Michelle Kim, who went to the United States from Seoul at 10 and whose parents had left the North during the Korean War, saidthe performance of music so familiar in a place so seemingly remote was moving.
Members of the New York Philharmonic arrived at Sunan International airport in Pyongyang on Monday. More Photos >
New York Philharmonic in Asia
Daniel J. Wakin reports from the orchestra's tour of Asia.
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Back Story With The Times’s Daniel J. Wakin (mp3)
Slide Show 25, 2008) 
A scene from the welcoming gala at the Mansudae Art Theater. More Photos >
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