Some members of the audience went to the stage to shake hands with the musicians from the two militaries, thanking them for their "wonderful musicianship" under the baton of Senior Colonel Yu Hai, the PLA military band's commander and conductor, Senior Colonel and conductor Zhang Zhirong and Colonel Thomas Rotondi Jr, the US Army Band's commander and conductor.

 

"The mixture of the older traditional Chinese and the new modern music is majestic, entertaining and enlightening," said Captain Mark O'Malley, sector commander of the US Coast Guard.

 

The symphonic poem Ambush "has different tempos. It is soothing and it is aggressive. It has a beautiful mix", he said.

 

Meanwhile, Victory Beckoning was "a very modern piece with all the brass. Then the back row stood, it was very dramatic".

 

Lieutenant Colonel Scott Rush of US Army Staff was the first to stand and start the long ovation for Dai Yuqiang, after the tenor from the PLA performed Nessun Dorma, from Turandot.

 

"Even though we are a world apart, everybody comes together in such a unity," Rush said, while his wife, Susan, said the piece she liked the best was Wang Luobin's In a Far Away Place.

 

The two main conductors were also overjoyed. "We were in almost perfect unison in our first official joint concert, it is a successful cooperation," Yu Hai told China Daily.

 

"The electricity is all over the place tonight; it is just excellent," Rotondi said.

 

Talking about the last two pieces, The Stars and Stripes Forever and Ode to the Motherland, Rontondi said these were "culmination of the whole evening".

 

"It is wonderful to share each band's patriotic feeling for our countries," said David Brundage, bassoonist of the US Army Band.