Playing to all in harmony; a look back ... UN Day concerts.

On 24 October, the sometimes dissonant voices speaking in many languages on political topics of all persuasions fall silent, and the walls of the General Assembly Hall at UN Headquarters reverberate with the harmonious chords and notes of world-class musicians. The occasion is UN Day, when music becomes the universal language.

Conductors Leonard Bernstein, Sir Georg Solti, Dimitri Mitropoulous, Eugene Ormandy, Seiji Ozawa and Zubin Mehta are among the music world's diplomats who have led orchestras UN podium. The great cellist-conductor Pablo Casals, violinists David Oistrakh and Jascha Heifetz, pianists Claudio Arrau and Alicia de Larrocha, singers Renata Tebaldi, Marian Anderson and Dame Joan Sutherland have also lent their considerable talents to this gala event, which is broadcast and telecast throughout the world.

The 1989 UN Day concert featured the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Charles Dutoit, with cellist Yo-Yo Ma as soloist. In 1990, the Czech Symphony led by conductor Vaclav Neumann is expected to play. Carnegie Hall

The first UN concert was held at Carnegie Hall in honour of Human Rights Day.

Reminiscing about that first concert held en 10 December 1949, a veteran international civil servant, quoted in Music at the United Nations, said: "It was a splendid sight, ablaze with the flags of the Member States draped from the two tiers of boxes where the delegations sat. The concert was to have been performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitzky, but a short time before, the maestro fell ill and suggested a young and rising conductor to replace him.

"It was Leonard Bernstein. Sir Laurence Olivier travelled from London to read the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Yehudi Menuhin played a Bach chaconne, and as there rang through the old hall the last notes of the 'Ode to Joy' from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, there began a tradition which took firm root and flourished."

Concerts held on UN Day, 24 October, began in 1954 under the auspices of then Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, who declared that they should be held annually. UN 'impresario'

Martin Bunnel, DPI Executive Producer and "impresario" for UN Day concerts for many years, says that finding a world class orchestra available to play in the northeast United States in the fall of the year is his key concern.

Although the UN does pay a small honorarium for the performance, it cannot cover the cost of bringing a large ensemble to the United States from abroad. The UN must also consider the importance of balance in representing the different geographical regions from year to year.

The concert stage put in place each year at the front of the Assembly Hall was a gift in 1954 from the IBM Corporation and its Chairman, Thomas J. Watson. IBM was the commercial underwriter for the concert's telecast on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) for many years.

Two rows of delegate desks and seats are removed to make room for the stage, which can accommodate a full symphony orchestra of 100 or more players, a 120-member chorus, several soloists, and the conductor.

"To move them on and off the stage in an orderly fashion is somewhat of a problem"' Bunnel says, "as they all have to be channeled through a small antechamber behind the podium". That is where the offices of the UN Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly are located, used on UN Day as dressing rooms for the maestro and soloists. Concert without instruments?

Concerts are planned three to four years in advance, and the possibility of a last-minute cancellation is always a major concern. And, indeed, there have been some tense moments, Mr. Bunnel says.

One year, the instruments of the Washington Symphony Orchestra did not arrive on schedule. The truck containing them had broken down on the New Jersey Turnpike. Only minutes before their scheduled appearance did the musicians claim their instruments from the just-arrived truck. "Obviously no time for rehearsal that year," Mr. Bunnel recalls. Playing in harmony

The UN Secretary-General customarily addresses the concert audience, frequently alluding to the harmony of the musical programme, hoping that it would be extended in the future to other activities in the Assembly Hall.

It was conductor Zubin Mehta who, after a standing ovation in 1982, faced the audience and quietly but firmly inquired: "We wonder why is it that we can play in harmony and you cannot?"

An answer came at the latest concert when Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, reflecting on recent momentous political events, said: "Certainly these days, we see that the concert of nations is beginning to overcome past discord and to enlarge its repertoire, applauded as it does so, by increasingly well-informed and enthusiastic audiences."