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snowflakes inside th at fall on the
Capitol wh en you shake it. " I equated
it with garlic for vampires-somethi ng
to ward off evil. Whether it worked or
not, we'll never kn ow. But it didn 't
snow ."
At long last , it was tim e to ro ll.
DeDee wat ch ed as th e Philharmonia
piled itself int o the bu ses th at stoo d
waiting on Gibbs Street. It was Friday
morning, J anua ry 14.
" H av e a goo d trip , don 't party too
much , and ge t a good night' s sleep,"
were DeDee' s words of wisdom. H e
casually strolled back int o the school's
main hall a nd saw, sitting th er e , a su itca
se belonging to one of the dep a rting
orchest ra member s. DeDee got it to
the right bus before it left.
From then on, th e tour proceed ed
without a hitch . " It's th e fir st situation
I ' ve ever been in wh ere eve rything
worked exactly as we expected it to ,"
says DeDee . "There weren't any
eme rge nc ies or unusual problems."
U nIess, that is, you count a minor traffic
violation incurred the day the
troops headed down that grueling
stre tch of highway from New York to
Pittsburgh: "T hat was th e day on e of
the bus driver s who was lagging behind
decided he would try to ca tch up . He
got a speeding ticket. "
It seem s appropria te th at no logistical
snags deflected atte n tion from the
music and th e performances. The entire
pro gram wa s exhi la ra ting,
Schwa nt ne r's drama tic, swirli ng work
sparkled, and Stargell's strong, deep
voice richl y compleme nted th e music.
New Momingfor the World was prais ed
in every city wh ere it wa s pla yed . The
Eastman Philharmonia was highly
com me nde d . Willie Sta rge ll, a man
who said he was un comfortabl e in a
tuxedo, was practically deified .
The Washington Post wrot e that
Starge ll spo ke " with q uiet dignity and
a n im posing presen ce-with su pe rb
p ace, expert ph rasin g, and carefu lly
calcula ted em phasis."
" H is diction was clear, his manner
one ofdeep convictio n and co mm itment,"
decreed Th e New York T imes
two days late r. Even Th e New Yorker,
whi ch had some reservations abo u t
othe r parts of the p rogr am, found
Sta rge ll's recital "m agni fice nt." The
cri tics in Pittsburgh heape d still more
prais e up on their tow n 's hero.
In Washington , the Post declared th e
Philharmonia to be possessed of "t he
power a nd precision of a profe ssional
ense m ble." The T imes ca lled th e orches
tra "abso lu tely first-class. "
Schwa ntne r's piece was well received
critically, with only a couple of
exceptio ns, one of them th e revi ewer
fro m th e Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who
found it a " d isappo in tme nt . . . designed
obv iously for a mass audience."
Considering th e nature a nd purpose of
the pro gram , how ever, Schwantner
hi m self wo uld be th e first to plead
gu ilty to th e " crime " of accessib ility .
" A simpler kind of music see me d right
for thi s proj ect especially ," h e had said
ini tially. " Robe rt Freeman's ide a for
th e piece was to expand the concert audience,
to try to bring people to the
conce rt hall who mi ght not o the rwise
go."
T ho ugh critica l acce ptance is always
ni ce, audien ce fav or a nd enthusiasm
was fa r a nd away the tru e goal of th is
tour-as well as the reason for its
greatest triu mph s. Roger Lathan was
at four of th e performan ces. H e
remember s "t he great involvem en t of
the aud ience with the pi ece" a nd " the
warm feelings that flowed th ro ugho ut
th e hall s an d the recep tion s. Everyone
h ad th e same feelin g a bo ut th e
Schw antner piece-that thi s was a
great work ."
" T his was one o f the most fant astic
eve nings my wife a nd I hav e ever ex ­
perien ced ," declared R epresentati ve
Carl Stokes, a D emocrat fro m C leveland
and a member of the Congressional
Black Caucus . " Willie was fantastic.
A real sta r ."
" I th ou ght it was great," exclaime d
Pirates pitching starJim Bibby . " It
gave yo u a different per sp ective on
Willie-but it wa s still very much
Willie Stargell, his back ground and his
intelligence ."
University alumni were, perhaps,
even more excited. "All of th e alum n i I
spoke with," reports associate director
ofalumni relationsJohn Braund '53 ,
who traveled with the Philharmoni a ,
" were uniformly thrilled with the concert.
What's more, in each city-and
th ey said this quite independently of
each other-alumni remarked th at this
wa s the first tim e the y'd seen blacks
and whites together in th ese halls."
What more could R ob ert Freeman
h ave wanted? Aft er th e tour was over,
th e Eastman School held a dinner for
Sta rgell a nd th e orches tra. Free ma n
was visibly overw helmed by the emo ­
tions inh erent in singular accomp lish ­
ment and fulfillmen t. It was a triumphant
ni ght, capp ing a sensa tional
tou r. " Here he was, " says N an cy
Holland, th e violi st, "this man with an
idea-and it worked out more wond
erfully than he probably could hav e
imagined ."
For Willie Stargell , it was a once -ina-lifetim
e expe rie nce. " I surprised
myself," he sa id . "Thisbiglug cannot
only swing a bat but he can also stand
up and chime in with beautiful music
and say something with a direct
meaning.
" It' s probably th e fine st thing I 've
eve r done in my life ."
On Friday the 2 1st-a mer e week
afte r the or chestra h ad load ed its instruments
an d its anticipation and
headed for W ashington-the tour' s
last officia l piece of busin ess took
place . Willie and the gang wer e back
on stage in th e Eastman Theatre , th ere
to record th e Schw antner a nd W alk er
pieces for a major record label. As the
stage was bein g readied, Eastm an
stage man ager Merritt E . Torrey,Jr.
look ed a t Stargell a nd put int o words
what everyo ne th ere was assuredl y
thinking. " Gee," he sighed, "isn't
th ere a wa y we can keep this guy her e
forever? "
U'hen he isn't writing about college students,
J eremy Schlosbergedits a biweekly newspaper
aimedat upstate N ew York undergraduates.