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Nuclear testing, renewed threats against Seoul: the latest news from North Korea are more than unsettling. Nonetheless, the Goethe-Institut is trying to not let the cultural contacts break down completely. It is a tightrope walk. Conductor Alexander Liebreich talked with us about an extended musical rapprochement.

Mr Liebreich, a few weeks ago you visited North Korea with the Münchener Kammerorchester. You have had an unusually lengthy working relationship with the country. How did that come about?

Liebreich: It began in 2002, when I was in the country for the first time with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. We performed Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony both in South and in North Korea. Back then twenty to thirty local artists also played in our orchestra and that was a very exciting experience. Since then I have had repeated opportunities to return to Pyongyang – thanks to the Goethe-Institut and the DAAD, who organized a serial guest professorship at the conservatory there.

What has changed during this time?

Not very much the first few years, but in the recent past it seems something has happened. During this visit, Koreans showed us photos of their families and surroundings on their iPads and cameras without any inhibitions. Our private contacts were astonishingly and pleasantly relaxed. During an evening stroll we were even able to spontaneously join in on a game of volleyball – for two hours. Ten years ago that would have been unthinkable.


How can a successful cultural exchange with North Korea be devised?

Cultural exchange is easy: there is an incredible hunger for the arts there, for knowledge and information in general. And we do not know very much about the isolated country here. This is the time that we could make a great difference. In the field of music we could open up the opportunity for a career to talented young musicians by providing them with instruments or with scores. I was just as touched as I was shocked to learn that my old lesson materials were still being copied and used. Even during my first visit, the musicians borrowed the scores from me, copied them by hand overnight and returned them the next day. The need is so great, as well as the curiosity, and the possibilities for projects have improved considerably. In my opinion now would be the right time to think about opening a Goethe-Institut in this country.

Aren’t the political repressions still too great for that step? After all, the reading room of the Goethe-Institut in Pyongyang had to closed because we could not ensure unimpeded access.

It is a difficult question: do we want or have to go along with the political pressure of isolation or keep the doors of communication open? It is quite possible that a reading room would now receive more access anyway. My students and colleagues at the conservatory appear to be well informed. I imagine that magazines such as the Stern or the Spiegel would reveal particular secrets to North Koreans. The arts have the opportunity and also the obligation to act within spaces – even beyond the big political gesture.


Together with the Goethe-Institut and the Tongyeong International Music Festival, of which you have been the artistic director since 2011, you launched a competition called the Asian Composer Showcase. How is that going?

Tongyeong would like to be seen as the hub of modern Asian music. Since the festival began there have been countless premiers there. I introduced the composer-in-residence system there in 2011. Since then, guests included leading figures such as Heiner Goebbels, UnSuk Chin, Beat Furrer, Toshio Hosokawa and Pascal Dusapin. The Asian Composer Showcase therefore has a wonderful stage in Tongyeong. The composer scenes in Japan, China and mainly in Korea are very active. The female composers from Korea, about 50 young ladies who work every year as volunteers at the festival, are amazing.

Our “classical music” enjoys great esteem particularly in east Asia. Many young Japanese and Korean musicians learn German in part because they would like to study music in Germany and with the aim of later working for a German orchestra. In your experience, are there differences in the approaches to music among the Asian nations?

Definitely. There are great differences in the temperaments of these nations, in the languages and therefore in expression and sound anyway – not unlike in Europe. The Chinese are very proud and like to emphasize that string and wind instruments were invented in China. They like to see themselves as the cradle of classical music. In Japan, the approach is rather that of the “educated middle-class.” There, “our classical music” is part of good etiquette and a bourgeois education, when daughters learn to pay the piano or violin. Korea’s culture is quite different from that of Japan. Society is far more rustic and the love of music is grounded quite differently. Korea often compares itself to Italy, where singing plays a huge role; many people sing and the Koreans also know our songs. You can recognize this background in the way Koreans play instruments. They play far more melodiously, which in part explains the success of many Koreans in contests. The direct tone in Korea is also refreshing; they just tell it like it is. They also leave space for innuendo, almost irony. The parallels in the cuisine are also exciting; they are also straight ahead in that. Food and music are then linked in the traditional picnic where sometimes the women dance for the men to the sound of the double-headed drum. In brief, it is all in all a country full of passion – both in the north and the south.

When do you think will the musicians you work with in Pyongyang be able to reciprocate and visit Germany?

Initial projects and visits have already taken place. In 2006 the Yun Isang Ensemble toured Germany for a few concerts at the Goethe-Institut’s invitation. We have also been able to send a number of young students to Germany with the DAAD. Now, in particular, it is important that this exchange be promoted so that we get a better idea of the people in this country. There is great uncertainty internationally about this country, which is also due to the fact that we do not know and cannot appraise the people.

Christoph Mücher held the interview.