After weeks of uncertainty, it’s now a done deal: The Philadelphia Orchestra will, indeed, touch down June 2nd at Mongolia’s Genghis Khan International Airport as part of its Asian tour, which starts Tuesday. But in the midst of that country’s bankruptcy crisis, only about one-fifth of the group — 18 musicians — will take the Mongolian leg of a tour that’s full of promising new beginnings and disappointing might-have-beens.

In Mongolia, the appearance that almost didn’t happen. In a state visit to Philadelphia last autumn, Mongolian president Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, a nomad turned Harvard graduate, seemed to form a mutual-admiration society with City Hall. The full orchestra was slated to visit the Mongolian capital city of Ulaanbaatar as part of this year’s tour. However, a financial crisis soon set in, partly because China’s economic slowdown meant far less Mongolian copper was imported, and the bottom dropped out of the business. Reports from Ulaanbaatar sound dire, with the economic domino effect felt everywhere. (phill.com)