Veterans Day, or at least the spirit of it, arrived ahead of schedule
once again this year when the Cleveland Pops Orchestra presented its fifth
annual "Salute to Our Armed Forces" to a packed house Friday night
at Severance Hall.
Subtitled "The Greatest Generation: A Tribute to the Men and Women
of World War II," the lengthy event was as much about pageantry as it
was music. Veterans of all stripes were present in the audience and were
duly honored with speech, song and applause.
All took place under the baton of Carl Topilow and, later, beneath an immense
American flag unfurled as a surprise effect. Louis Lane, a former resident
conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, presided over the Armed Forces Medley.
Local television news anchor Tim White, himself a brigadier general in
the Air Force Reserve, narrated the concert's first third and introduced
heart-pounding orchestral selections from such films as "Pearl Harbor," "Midway" and "Patton," sometimes
choking up with tears. Another newsman, Dick Goddard, a Korean War Air Force
veteran, commenced the evening by singing "The Star Spangled Banner."
The United States Air Force Night Flight Jazz Ensemble, led by Lt. Col.
Alan Sierichs, paused the solemnity for a high-energy tribute to Glenn Miller
and a set of military-themed swing tunes that included "Bugle Call Rag" and "Mission
to Moscow." Two men and three women dressed in vintage suits and bomber
jackets added their pleasant, if overamplified, vocal harmonies into the
nostalgic mix.
More harmony, roughly 20 times more of it to be specific, came in the form
of the gigantic Tower City Chorus. A barbershop quartet writ large; the chorus
deployed itself ably in three numbers, "America the Beautiful," "As
Time Goes By" and "Sentimental Journey."
Bass-baritone Phillip Boykin ensured that the audience's emotions were
never less than stirred, appearing twice to sing—though with many lyrical
errors and in a strangely high range—such sure-fire hits as "Amazing
Grace" and Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA." His voice,
too, was overamplified, but his excessively emotional style was the greater
problem.
No Cleveland Pops concert can end properly without a Topilow clarinet solo,
and this event ended properly. Topilow and two piccolo players tooted the
evening to a spirited close as the featured soloists in "The Stars and
Stripes Forever."
© 2005 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.
