May 23, 2005

Salute touching, overamplified

Zachary Lewis Special to The Plain Dealer

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.