First of all, the Philharmonic is my big hometown band. I have several acquaintances and old schoolmates among the musicians, and I love hearing them whenever I get the chance. They have a well-deserved reputation as a wild bunch. During the tenure of music director emeritus Kurt Masur, they overcame a serious tendency to morale problems, and are now as consistent as you please. They’re one of America’s Big Five symphony orchestras, and on any given night they can be the best in the world.

American symphony orchestras have a distinguished history as cultural ambassadors in politically challenging settings. The Philharmonic traveled to the Soviet Union in 1959 with then-music director Leonard Bernstein, and to Israel in 1948. The Philadelphia Orchestra went to the People’s Republic of China in 1973. These tours and others like them of course were triumphs, both artistically and diplomatically.

Going on an international tour is a vast undertaking for a major arts organization, and this one is no different. The tour is being funded by Credit Suisse First Boston, among others, and will run for three weeks in February 2008. The original tour plans called for performances in Taipei, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. Music director Lorin Maazel has programmed mostly unadventurous repertoire, consisting mostly of nineteenth-century warhorses (with the Barber Violin Concerto and Gershwin’s An American in Paris as the only exceptions).

After the overture from the North Koreans, the orchestra arranged to add two additional performances to the tour: one in Seoul and one in Pyongyang, two days apart. The orchestra will spend two days in the North, traveling on an plane chartered from a South Korean airline. (The tour consists of about 250 people and about 100 musical instruments, some of them very large, and most of them very temperamental.) While in the North, orchestra members will give master classes, and a rehearsal that will be open to professional musicians and students, in addition to their concert performance.

Contrary to some reports, the Philharmonic will not be performing Handel’s Messiah on tour. Being an oratorio with large chorus and four vocal soloists, the Handel would have required traveling perhaps 200 additional personnel. Not bloody likely.

Philharmonic management, led by President Zarin Mehta, insisted on a set of special conditions before agreeing to perform in Pyongyang. (And yes, Zarin is related to conductor Zubin Mehta, the former Philharmonic music director and current music director of the Israel Philharmonic: they’re brothers.)

The North Koreans agreed to allow foreign journalists to attend the concert, which means we ought to get reasonably unbiased reviews. The orchestra will be allowed to open their concert by playing The Star-Spangled Banner. Importantly, the Koreans also agreed to broadcast the performance via live radio throughout North Korea, to address the concern that only an audience of hand-picked political elites would hear it.

Among the private citizens and organizations who are quietly acting as sherpas in this undertaking, it’s noteworthy that the South Koreans appear to have taken a major role. I’ve long had the belief (from talking to friends and associates from South Korea) that they expect the peninsula to be reunified in the next ten to fifteen years, but no one is in any hurry to force the issue. Though few will say it, one suspects that Kim Jong-Il (now in his mid-60s) will need to die first.

Americans often suspect the South Koreans of coddling the Northern dictator out of a lack of backbone. That may or may not be true. But it certainly is the case that no resolution to the North Korean situation (either in its nuclear-security or its humanitarian dimensions) can come without the full cooperation of people in the South.

Some Americans, notably John Bolton, have spoken out against the Philharmonic’s North Korean adventure. They argue, reasonably, that nothing should be done to give credibility and prestige to a hostile regime at a time when our Administration is engaged in delicate negotiations with them over the nuclear issue.

But now that the tour is a done deal, it’s worth recalling the illustrious history of American cultural ambassadors to non-free lands, by way of at least looking at the bright side.

It’s far too much to hope that a tour by a symphony orchestra will end the isolation of North Korea, and the oppression of the North Koreans by their own rulers.

But it’s worth hoping that, by seeing and hearing some of the most wonderful people in America at the top of their game, some North Koreans will start to realize that there are other, and better, ways to run their country. And it may help them look ahead to the end of their isolation.

To the guys and ladies I know in the New York Philharmonic: Have a great trip, play well, and carry the American flag high! And I can’t wait to hear your stories when you get back.