In a somewhat misguided attempt to woo the West, the Iranian government has sent the Tehran Symphony Orchestra on a goodwill tour of European cities, including Geneva, one of the capitals of the Iranian diaspora. Well-intentioned, no doubt. But things have been going less than swimmingly, as any Iranian with any contact with the outside world could have predicted. After the concert at Geneva's venerable Victoria Hall–whose stage has, over the years, welcomed the likes of Liszt, Michelangeli, Horowitz, Argerich, and Rubinstein, to name but a few–exiled Iranians, exasperated by the performance, mounted the podium, strewing flowers in honor of the victims of the mullahs' dictatorship and shouting slogans all the while. This was by far the high point of the evening. The music part, according to a blistering review by the NY Times critic, Michael Kimmelman, was ludicrous at best, unbearable at worst. The once-dignified orchestra, a serious music-making body back in the godless days of the Shah, was forced by the regime to perform Majid Entezami's Peace and Friendship Symphony, "a four-movement jeremiad of martial bombast and almost unfathomable incompetence and silliness," according to Kimmelman. (Now that's reviewing!) One recalls similar cack-handed gestures by Communist China, back in the day: the glorious "East Is Red Symphony"; the "Yellow River Concerto," both written by a subcommittee of the Central Committee of the Presidium, touring the West....on the other hand, look where those overtures (no pun intended) led: New China! So maybe this concert tour is a good thing after all. But I'm afraid it's more likely to be just another sign of the delusional nature of autocracies.