North Korea played coy to the very last minute. When we—that is, the New York Philharmonic and its entourage of patrons, press and support staff—took off from Beijing Capital International Airport on Monday afternoon, China’s mountainous gnarls were visible as far as the eye could see. But from the time our plane broke through the clouds to a crusing altitude until mere moments before our arrival, everything about North Korea remained cloaked in mystery.

When we finally broke through the clouds, we saw a lunar landscape of snowcapped peaks, which gave way to stark winter fields in which a few distant workers were attended by massive, blocky trucks. There was barbed wire, sure, but no more than you would see at any airport. We could easily have been in Kansas, or Wyoming.

Or at least that was true until we caught sight of Kim Il Sung, smiling beneficently down from a portrait atop the Sunan International Airport terminal. The airport seemed to be deserted, save  a few curious onlookers pressed against the windows. Out on the tarmac we jockeyed for the best position from which to take pictures of ourselves—and the orchestra, of course. NY Phil handlers did valiant work keeping everything coordinated, though I swear there was a moment when the line of photographers started to rush the line of posed musicians with an intensity that recalled Braveheart.

Music director Lorin Maazel was tucked into an awaiting Mercedes sedan, while the rest of us were shepherded into buses without ever setting foot in the terminal. As we drove past Air Koryo propeller planes with tarps over their windshields, it increasingly seemed that we were being snuck into the country undercover—or perhaps that North Korea’s citizens were being spared sight of us.

The enormity of this trip finally began to sink in as we sped past gray, blocky apartment buildings, pedestrians and bicyclists. As we approached Pyongyang the patriotic posters and murals appeared more frequently. Approaching the city center, we spotted monuments and buildings that had previously only been names and snapshots in books. (According to a report in the South China Morning Post, most of the anti-American posters were generously torn down prior to our arrival.)

We checked into the massive Yanggakdo International Hotel, a building that seemed to epitomize a sort of Soviet-era elegance. (I was personally delighted to spot the sea turtle that made so many memorable cameos in Guy Delisle’s graphic novel Pyongyang.) But there was scarcely time to drop our bags and catch our breath before we were hustled right back out by our superefficient North Korean handlers.

Driving through dark city streets lit by star-shaped constellations of white bulbs and Korean symbols in red and green neon, I felt like we’d somehow discovered Santa’s village in the last place any kid would have thought to look for it.

We were taken first to the genuinely opulent Masumdae Art Theatre, where North Korean artists sang and danced bright, cheerful songs paying homage to honest toil and the virtue of the anti-Japanese war effort. Being confronted with this kind of state-oriented art, presented in an absolutely earnest performance, inspired deep feelings of ambiguity; still, the performers themselves were quite remarkable, not least for being able to maintain a smile that was not frozen but somehow in subtle yet constant motion.

Then on to the suitably palatial People’s Palace of Culture, where we were feted with an overwhelmingly sumptuous banquet and toasted with insamsul, a fiery hard-liquor concoction made from ginseng. One writer at my table noted that if our bus ran out of gas on the way home, we could get it started again by blowing in the fuel tank.

The players get down to work tomorrow: In addition to the concert seen and heard round the world (and remember, at home you’ll be seeing it on WNET/Channel 13 at 8pm), orchestra members will present musical gifts to North Korean students and teach master classes at Pyongyang University. And there’s still one lingering rumor: Just who will be attending the concert?