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Understatement of the year: Joint concert “not quite a success”

A cut-down performance of Arirang near the DMZ on Independence Day.
A cut-down performance of Arirang near the DMZ on Independence Day. Photo Park Sang-moon / Korean Joongang Daily

There’s a delightful and very detailed account of the grand Independence Day North-South musical collaboration in the Korea Joongang Daily. The headline reads “DMZ concert not quite a success, but not a failure”. Less politely put, the affair sounds like it was a bit of a fiasco:

Only “13 musicians … turned up: one violin, one flute, one piccolo, six cellos, one clarinet, two horns and one tuba”. And no singers.

Try doing Beethoven’s 9th on those forces. Instead, they went for less ambitious repertoire:

“the tune of Arirang resonated loudly across the park, causing campers in the caravan site next door to pop their heads out of their cars in curiosity”

Read the rest here.

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