“Asked whether the Philharmonic would be handing North Korea a propaganda victory by playing in Pyongyang, Mr. Mehta replied, ‘We’re not going to do any propaganda. We’re going there to create some joy.’ Somehow I doubt that playing Gershwin’s An American in Paris and Dvorak’s New World Symphony for 1,500 hand-picked servants of the regime will bring joy to the inmates of the North Korean Gulag…”
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
