On Vivace this
week, we have some musical birthdays to celebrate: Siegfried Wagner,
Aram Khachaturian and Ignaz Pleyel.
However, the main focus of the
show will be to mark the 70th anniversary of a date that everyone
knows: June 6, 1944.
It was on that morning that Allied forces crossed the English Channel
and landed on the beaches of Normandy, in northern France to liberate
Western Europe from the occupation of Nazi Germany.
On the first day, 176,000 troops, including 73,000 Americans, arrived by landing craft and ships as well as nearly 14,000 aircraft. The Allied forces were able to secure Northern France within 3 months, despite considerable resistance by Nazi forces. It proved to be the turning point in World War Two.
Early on Friday morning, exactly 70 years after that momentous morning, many world leaders, including Britain's Queen Elizabeth, 28 European Heads of Government and the presidents of Russia and the United States will gather in Normandy to remember and pay homage to those who died. The American commemoration will be a concert, which we will reproduce for you in its entirety starting at 7 am.
This is sure to
be compelling listening. As ever, I hope you'll join me for this
special D-Day edition of Vivace here on WTJU-Charlottesville.
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