The skies dripped intermittently. The trees dripped steadily. Several hundred umbrellas dripped rhythmically above the benches. Suddenly a silver-haired little man skipped nimbly to the front of his band, waved the first downbeat.
He was Edwin Franko Goldman, No. 1 U.S. bandmaster, celebrating his silver jubilee last week. For the 25th summer in a row he was conducting his band in Manhattan's Central Park, in a nightly series of free open-air concerts.
Conductor Goldman, who has encountered all kinds of weather and all sizes of audiences (up to 60,000) in his 1,398 concerts, was...