Remembering the Bright Joy of Victory, the Dark Tragedy of Loss

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 16^th 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 70^th-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.