By Bryce Christensen
“But
westward, look, the land is bright!”
With these words, borrowed from the poet Arthur Clough, Prime Minister
Winston Churchill concluded a pivotal 1941 broadcast, rallying the spirits of
his fellow Brits with assurances that help from the radiant land to the
west—namely, America—would carry them to victory over the Nazi forces
threatening them. Given the way American
forces fulfilled Churchill’s hopes, it is entirely appropriate that when the
Orchestra of Southern Utah (OSU) held a special commemorative concert at the
Heritage Center on April 16th to celebrate Allied Victory in Europe
seventy years ago, that concert began with a stirring rendition of America’s
national anthem and concluded with a brilliant performance of two movements
from a masterpiece focused on the bright Western land that so emboldened Churchill. Written by the Czech composer Antonín
Dvořák while he was serving as director of the National
Conservatory of Music of America, the New
World Symphony (Symphony No. 9 in E
Minor) was the perfect culmination of a concert remembering the unconquerable
American spirit that triumphed over the ominous forces whose aggressions
brought war to Europe and the Pacific.
Given the focus of the evening, it was very appropriate
that that OSU hosted a special dinner before the concert, honoring veterans—especially
World War II vets, now well advanced in years.
When OSU President Harold Shirley welcomed the audience to the concert,
he asked the veterans of World War II to stand for a special round of
applause. He then recognized veterans
from all the more recent wars. These were men and women, Shirley reminded
the audience, who had put their dreams on hold to keep the light of freedom
burning.
After listeners had stood to affirm in united song their
allegiance to the nation that rallies beneath “The Star Spangled Banner,” Shirley
took a minute to make elucidatory remarks about the next number. Indeed, on this special night, Shirley
departed from his usual practice of simply welcoming concert-goers with a few
introductory comments. For this concert,
he provided a bit of context before each of the program numbers. So when OSU’s brass section launched into a
luminous rendition of Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” the
audience knew something about how Franklin Delano Roosevelt had inspired
Copland to write this enduring tribute to the common man, who had answered the
stern call of wartime duty. Beginning
with a radiant solo by Adam Lambert, this stirring number tapped into the
singular power of brass instruments to galvanize listeners with unflinching
resolve. Augmenting the power of this
particular rendition of Copland’s work were guest instrumentalists (notably,
students from Southern Utah University) who joined the regular OSU brass
musicians. And as they listened to this
musical paean to the ordinary American, concert-goers appreciated afresh just how wonderfully different this democratic
country is from the land of Aryan supermen that Hitler tried to construct in
Germany.
The concert headline focused on the victory the Allies
claimed in Europe in May 1945, a victory won largely by ground troops supported
by air power. But as Shirley noted in
his remarks in introducing the next concert selection, American involvement in
the war actually began in the Pacific, with the Japanese attack on the American
naval base in Pearl Harbor in December 1941, and continued in the Pacific for
four bloody months after the Germans had capitulated in Europe. Largely to celebrate the wartime victories of
the U.S. Navy, especially in the Pacific theater, OSU included in the evening’s
program Richard Rodgers’ Victory at
Sea. Pulsing with the energy of
valiant sailors, this spirited number afforded OSU’s gifted director—Xun
Sun—and the skilled musicians under his baton ample opportunity to demonstrate
their interpretive range. Opening in a
defiantly martial vein, the orchestra seamlessly segued into quieter and more
melodic strains, then grew tense as if against rising threats, and finally gathered
into an impressively triumphant conclusion.
As listeners rode this compelling
musical narrative, they recalled America’s hard-won conquests at the Coral Sea,
Midway, Leyte Gulf, and elsewhere.
Though heartfelt, the euphoria that swept through the
country in 1945--when German General Alfred Jodl surrendered to Allied forces--was
tinged with deep sorrow, sorrow for all who had perished in the global
conflagration that began in 1939 but especially deep sorrow for six million
Jews who had died in the Nazi Holocaust.
Seventy years later, joy at the American triumph over tyranny is still
muted by sober remembrance of these six million. It was therefore entirely fitting that Shirley
voiced outrage over this wartime atrocity, vowing that “Never again!” must be
Americans’ iron response. Giving force
to that vow, OSU dedicated two concert selections to the Jewish victims of the
Nazis’ murderous hatred. Before
intermission, the audience heard the first of these two numbers: Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei, a poignant evocation of the
prayer-like utterance with which Jews begin Yom Kippur. Featuring a masterful cello solo by Nina
Hansen, this number carried listeners into the reverent circle of devotion
where Jews mark a holy day of Atonement.
Evincing exceptional instrumental mastery, Hansen drew from her cello a
lacerating lament, a musical keening born of sorrow at how the Nazis lethally
violated the Jews’ sacred circle of faith.
The final selection before intermission—Maurice Jarre’s Theme from ‘Lawrence of Arabia’--carried
listeners back to a World War I battlefield far from Europe. As an
evocation of heroic bravery in difficult circumstances, however, this piece reminded
readers of how America’s World War II soldiers—like the British officer T.E. Lawrence
in World War I—courageously faced danger in lands far from home. The orchestra fully captured the exotic mood
of this cinema number, a number seething with percussive energy.
After intermission, the orchestra turned again to the
tragic loss of life in the Holocaust.
With tender and sensitive expression, Xun Sun and the orchestra made Ernest
Bloch’s “Prayer for Jewish Life Suite” a musical fusion of piety and
pathos. This evening’s performance of
this selection featured a memorable solo by guest performer Ling Yu, who had
herself transcripted the score for the viola.
Rendering this number with deep poignancy, Yu moved her listeners to
profound and mournful reflection on the terrible atrocity that the Nazis
committed against the Jewish people. With
consummate artistry, Yu coaxed from her viola an outpouring of sorrow drawn
from a bottomless well of emotion.
Everyone in attendance at the concert will remember the
sobering musical meditation they shared on the Holocaust, but everyone will
also remember the revitalized hopes for life and freedom that surged with the
orchestra’s performance of the evening’s final number, the Second and Fourth
Movements of Dvořák’s New World Symphony.
Mellow euphony marked the Second Movement, a euphony woven together in
alternating passages by the string and wind sections, drawing strength from the
brass section. In the Fourth Movement,
the signature refrain of this special number sounded forth with new and irresistible
force, swelling to impressive majesty in its climax. Himself a naturalized American citizen, OSU
conductor Xun Sun directed the orchestra with great fervor in this number as he
drew from OSU’s three score talented musicians a thrilling effusion of all that
makes New World America the land that Lincoln called “the last best hope of
earth.”
The audience left the Heritage Center after the concert,
deeply grateful for the musical talents of those who had melded in this
impressive 70th-year memorial of the end of World War II. They left grateful, too, for the generous financial
contributions of the sponsors (the Sterling & Shelli Gardner Foundation and
the Charles and Gloria Maxfield Parrish Foundation), who made this concert
affordable for hundreds. But at a time
when living veterans of the War are dwindling, the audience left especially
thankful for those who bore the heat of perilous battles seven decades
ago.
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