The NY Phil annual free Memorial Day concert at St John began with a slow walking New Orleans funeral dirge up the main aisle led by Wynton Marsalis in honor of Maestro Masur. Masur, an East German, defused a confrontation with the police in Leipzig in September 1989 that is credited with setting a template of peaceful, nonviolent confrontation that bore remarkable fruit the next month in Berlin when the wall came down unchallenged by the security forces. For this heroism he was awarded the music directorship of the Phil, perhaps the thought being he could ease the confrontational nature of the orchestra vis a vis music, which he is widely credited as having done.