Evening star., 1942-01-26
By ALICE EVERSMAN.

lne NATIONAL symphony oICIieS-
ira has never before had a rival on
its own program and in spite of its
good performance last evening it
practically was forgotten when
Benny Goodman and his band took
the stage at Constitution Hall for the
second half of the concert.
OF course the forgetting was done
by the Goodman fans and it may be
that the regular symphony patrons
clung the more desperately to the
sweet sounds they had just heard
which were obliterated when the
swingsters got into their stride. The
staid receSSes of the D. A. R. hall,
where art with capital A has
flouriShed. reSounded to music it has
seldom heard before and witnessed
a mounting excitement such as the
biographers of the three BIS never
brought to light when writing of
their successes.
The very skilled 9nn&:x.iIs..s wnom
Mr.. Goodman has assembled real
lied their opportunity and the i'm
portance of it and gave their AL" !"
Body, and presumably soul, united
in as wholehearted a performance
as the most eXacting devotee OF
swing could wish for and the
audience was not backward in doing
its part. Arms and bodies sWayed
to the rhythm, hands began to clap
to the beat while cheers and thun-
derous applause tore at the rafterS
as each favorite number was an
nounced. When Melvin Powell
settled down to the piano and
Cootie Williams took the middle OF
the stage to quiver his soul out with
his trumpet and dance few steps
so that the rhythm would not be
lost and Peggy Lee sang her deep
voiced songs you knew that these
artists had following that Heifetz
might envy.
Goodman's Playing Praised.
Occasionally Mr.. Goodman. re-
sponsible for all this glittering music,
took few measures for his clarinet
and played them deftly, but then MIR.
Goodman had had his special ova-
ton in that remote first part of the
program where the National SYM
phony ruled supreme. 1t was an
other Goodman who played the
Mozart Clarinet Concerto" and as
encore the Debussy Rhapsody for
clarinet and orchestra, a sedate
Goodman who handled his instru-
ment in restrained, classic style.
A thought intrudes at this mo-
ment. Do the classics minimize
ones personality and does swing
bring it out? In Mr.. Goodman's
case the answer to both questions Is
yes AS player of classics and
of Debussy, his work was artistlcally
conceived and presented in clean,
flowing manner But give him a
bit of swing and he blooms and
radiates and scintillates into the
hero he is to his followers.
The National Symphony played
exceptionally well. 1t may be SIM
ply our imagination, but the influ-
ence of Mr.. Goodman and his band
was a teeny bit discernible in the
extra verve the orchestra put into
FrescobSldi's 'Toccata," for it had
more of a 1912 tinge than anything
the 18th century approved of. Just
to prove to the Goodmanites what
a symphony orchestra can produce
in maSsed sound. DR.. Kinder pro-
grammed his interesting arrange
ment of excerpts from Boris God
ounov" and the orchestra's per-
formance was one of those to which
the minority Of serious music
lovers present clung. Everybody
seemed to like it, however, and gave
DR.. Kinder and the orchestra
standing with him real ovation.
This was a good moment to bridge
the distance between the first and
second half of the program and DR.
Kinder did it skillfully by playing
the voodoo dance. "Batuque," by
the Brazilian composer, Fernandez
which was given its local premiere
Wednesday night. The program
the orchestra's performance and DR.
Kindler's directing made deep
impression on the crowded hall and
1t was not only the symphony
patrons who gave the resounding
applause. The question now is, did
the orchestra win over adherents